Trade war: US and China said to agree on ‘phase one’ deal, with new US tariffs set aside
- US President Donald Trump gives the settlement his approval, Bloomberg reports
- US tariffs of 15 per cent on US$160 billion of Chinese goods, scheduled for Sunday, will be postponed, news outlets say
The United States and China have reached consensus on the terms of a “phase one” trade deal, multiple US media outlets reported on Thursday.
Intended to be the first in a series of incremental agreements to resolve the trade war, the deal has the approval of US President Donald Trump, Bloomberg reported, citing several unnamed people briefed on the matter.
As part of the agreement, the US would not only postpone tariffs on around US$160 billion of Chinese goods scheduled to go into effect on Sunday, but also make cuts in duties already in place, Myron Brilliant of the US Chamber of Commerce told CNBC, citing US administration sources who had briefed him on the plans.
Neither the White House nor the Office of the United States Trade Representative responded to requests for comment on the status of the agreement.
China has yet to confirm whether it will push ahead with postponing its own tariffs of between 5 and 10 per cent on US goods, also set to go into effect on Sunday. Over the course of negotiations, Beijing has maintained that a suspension of future tariff increases and a rollback of existing duties should be part of any agreement.
Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi told an international affairs forum in Beijing on Friday morning that Beijing would release information on any trade deal as soon as possible, Phoenix TV reported.