US and China agree to establish trade deal enforcement offices, says US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin
- Mnuchin said that a call with Chinese Vice-Premier Liu He on Tuesday night was productive and that discussions would resume on Thursday
US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said on Wednesday that US-China trade talks continue to make progress and that the two sides have basically settled on a mechanism to police any agreement, including new enforcement offices.
Mnuchin, speaking on CNBC television, said that a call with Chinese Vice Premier Liu He on Tuesday night was productive and that discussions would resume on Thursday.
“We’ve pretty much agreed on an enforcement mechanism; we’ve agreed that both sides will establish enforcement offices that will deal with the ongoing matters,” Mnuchin said, adding that there were still important issues to be addressed.
Mnuchin declined to comment on when or if US tariffs on US$250 billion worth of Chinese goods would be removed.
Although US President Donald Trump said recently that a deal could be ready around the end of April, Mnuchin declined to put a time frame on the negotiations, adding that Trump was focused on getting the “right deal”.
“As soon as we’re ready and we have this done, he’s ready and willing to meet with President Xi (Jinping) and it’s important for the two leaders to meet and we’re hopeful we can do this quickly, but we’re not going to set an arbitrary deadline,” Mnuchin said.
Washington is demanding that China implement significant reforms to curb the theft of US intellectual property and end forced transfers of technology from American companies to Chinese firms.
Washington also wants Beijing to curb industrial subsidies, open its markets more widely to US firms and vastly increase purchases of American agricultural, energy and manufactured goods.
