In what could be a much clearer sign that the 19-month trade war is finally coming to an end, U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer told press Sunday that the phase one China-US trade deal is "totally done.
The best news that came out of this is that the US could double its exports to China for the nextthe two years - something that U.S. President Donald Trump had been persisted about and his main reason why he started tye controversy in the first place.
Lighthizer said China nodded in the request made that it increase its purchase of agricultural produce from the US. The representative went on the length saying that the Asian country could buy billions of dollars of agricultural produce from America.
China could import American products amounting to more than $100 billion a year, according to some trade negotiators. Other trades negotiators predict, at the same time, that concerning farm products alone, China could buy as much as $40 billion to $50 billion of U.S. agricultural products.
Meanwhile, China has just released an official statement saying that it has suspended tariffs on American imports that include corn, US-made cars, and auto parts. It mentioned that it will import more US farm products but haven't put a number yet.
For their part, Trump said he will no longer greenlight the additional tariffs supposed to take effect on 15 Dec. The majority of details of the phase one deal, however, remained to be kept under wraps.
In an official press release, the office of U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer said phase one involved agreement to improve China's economic and trade practices, including intellectual property, technology transfer, agriculture, financial services, currency, and foreign exchange. The whole of the China-US phase one deal will be officially signed in January.
With the suspension of additional levies decided by both parties, only tariffs in effect remained. The U.S. has imposed 25% of tariffs on approximately $250 billion of imports and 7.5% tariffs on $120 billion of imports. At the same time, China's levies on $185 billion worth of U.S. goods remained in effect, as well.
In a separate statement from Lighthizer, he said there is no truth to a Wall Street Journal report from Bob Davis and Lingling Wei saying the U.S. agreed to cut 50% of taxes placed on $360 billion of Chinese imports. The report was based on anonymous sources purportedly leaking information to the publication.
