US Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin will speak with Chinese Vice Premier Liu He today by phone. Two sides are believed to be working on the text for Phase One of US-China trade agreement, for signing at the APEC summit in Chile on November 16-17.
It’s reported that China will ask US to drop the plan to impose tariffs on USD 156B of Chinese goods on December 15. Additionally, Beijing could ask US to remove the tranche of tariffs imposed on September 1, on USD 125B of Chinese imports, too. That is, China is seeking to get back to tariffs on just the original USD 250B in goods.
In exchange China would buy at least USD 20B of American farm products in the first year, as part of the phase one deal. That would bring purchases back to the level in 2017, before trade war began. In the second year of a final deal, purchases could rise further to USD 40B-50B, when all punitive tariffs are removed.
