AP Photo/Andy Wong
- China said on Thursday that its chief trade negotiator would visit the US next week to sign an interim agreement to defuse a more than yearlong dispute with the Trump administration.
- The statement offered the first official confirmation that China would participate in a signing ceremony that President Donald Trump announced last month.
- The Trump administration has said that after the first stage is signed, trade negotiators will begin working toward a more comprehensive trade agreement.
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China said on Thursday that its chief trade negotiator would visit the US next week to sign an interim agreement to defuse a more than yearlong dispute with the Trump administration.
Vice Premier Liu He will travel to Washington on Monday and stay through the expected signing on Wednesday, a representative for China’s commerce ministry, Gao Feng, told reporters. The statement offered the first official confirmation that China would participate in a signing ceremony that President Donald Trump announced last month.
The US and China recently said they had hammered out the details of the so-called phase-one deal, which suspended planned tariff escalations in October. The agreement also cut in half a 15% US tariff on $120 billion worth of Chinese imports. Tariffs were kept on more than $250 billion worth of goods.
The two sides have not released the 86-page phase-one deal, but the White House said it secured commitments from China on some of the ways it manages its economy. Those included pledges for stricter rules around intellectual-property protections and currency movements, as well as increased financial-sector access for US firms.
The Trump administration has said China also agreed to dramatically increase its imports of American farm products. But the second-largest economy has repeatedly declined to confirm the touted $50 billion quota, which would be more than double the amount of farm products it imported from the US in 2017.
China will “improve its tariff policy on wheat, corn, and other farm products based on the rules of the World Trade Organization,” Gao said.
The statement from China on Thursday suggested that the two countries had made progress after weeks of legal scrubs and translations. The Trump administration has said that after the first stage is signed, trade negotiators would begin working toward a more comprehensive trade agreement.
