Trump claims trade talks 'breakthrough' with China

TEHRAN (defapress) – US President Donald Trump, while speaking at a Turning Point USA meeting, said that the US and China would sign 'phase one' of a trade deal "very shortly".

News ID: 79647

Date: 22 December 2019 - 11:52

"We just achieved a breakthrough on the trade deal and we will be signing it very shortly", Trump announced.

On Friday, Trump claimed that he had a "very good talk" during a phone call with Chinese President Xi Jinping.

An agreement on the so-called phase one part of the trade deal - a larger American-Chinese bilateral agreement - was reportedly reached last week.

Phase one stipulates a significant adjustment of US tariffs on Chinese goods but would maintain 25-percent tariffs on approximately $250 billion of Chinese imports, along with 7.5-percent tariffs on approximately $120 billion of Chinese imports. The deal also requires China to increase its purchases of US products and services by at least $200 billion over the next two years.

The agreement also reportedly affects tariff relief on agricultural purchases as well as indicating certain structural changes to intellectual property and technology issues.

The world’s two largest economies have been engaged in a trade war for over a year after the Trump administration claimed unfair economic conditions and non-competitive behavior by China. China has denied the administration's accusations, noting that an unnecessary trade row has not been beneficial to either side or the world economy. The standoff devolved into tit-for-tat tariff hikes on myriads of imported goods between the countries.

Analysts and government officials from many nations routinely cite the US-China trade war as one of the key reasons behind a recent global economic slowdown.

Message end/