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US-China trade war
EconomyChina Economy

Xi Jinping’s Brazil trip ‘may be too soon’ for China to sign partial US trade war deal

  • Beijing has not agreed to a stopover in US on way to summit, source says, with details of agreement not yet finalised
  • Removal of US tariffs remains a sticking point on Chinese side

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Presidents Donald Trump and Xi Jinping had been due to meet this month in Chile until the cancellation of the Apec summit. Photo: AP
Zhou Xin

Next week’s trip to Brazil by Chinese President Xi Jinping may come too soon for him to sign a “phase one” trade deal with the United States, sources have said, with work continuing on the details of the agreement.

Xi’s trip to Brasilia to attend a summit of emerging markets had been seen as the next possible chance for China and the US to complete a partial deal amid their protracted trade war, with suggestions that Xi could stop in the US on his way to or from the Brazilian capital, but the two sides have yet to reach a consensus.
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Beijing and Washington have been discussing a time and place for the two leaders to meet since Chile announced the cancellation of this month’s Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit.

A source who had been briefed on the matter told the South China Morning Post that one of the ideas was for Xi and his American counterpart Donald Trump to hold a summit in the US, but China would not agree to it.

Trump had said he and Xi could sign the agreement – based on the outcome of talks between the two nations in October – in Iowa, an agricultural state that Xi visited in 2012. Other US officials had suggested Alaska and Hawaii may be possible locations.

Chinese officials have remained tight-lipped about arrangements for a Xi-Trump meeting, saying only that talks between the two sides had been smooth and the two presidents had maintained communication.

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Xi is due to attend the Brazil summit alongside leaders from the host country, Russia, India and South Africa on November 13 and 14, and there were hopes that he could make a stopover in the US to sign the deal.

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