The messages regarding rollback of imposed tariffs as part of the phase one US-China trade agreement were rather confusing and conflicting. White House economic adviser Larry Kudlow told Bloomberg, “if there’s a phase one trade deal, there are going to be tariff agreements and concessions.”
However, another White House adviser Peter Navarro told Fox Business Network: “There is no agreement at this time to remove any of the existing tariffs as a condition of the phase one deal.” And China was just “negotiating in public”, trying to push this in a direction with their “propaganda press.” White House spokeswoman Stephanie Grisham just said “I cannot get ahead of the talks with China, but we are very, very optimistic that we will reach a deal soon”.
Yesterday, China Ministry of Commerce spokesman Gao Feng said “both sides have agreed to cancel additional tariffs in different phases, as both sides make progress in their negotiations.”
