Donald Trump reveals phase one trade agreement with China
The US and China have come to an agreement on the first phase of negotiations, President Donald Trump confirmed on Friday.
The “substantial” trade deal covers intellectual property, financial services and large agricultural purchases.
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Following talks with China’s Vice Premier Liu He, Trump told reports: “It took us a long time to get here, but it’s something that’s going to be great for China and great for the USA.”
The US will now suspend the tariff hike on $250bn (£197bn) in Chinese imports that was planned to come in to effect on Tuesday.
China will in exchange buy between $40bn (£31bn) and $50bn (£39bn) in US farm products and has agreed to be more open about how the value of its currency is set.
Previously the US has accused China of manipulating the yuan’s value to give its exporters an advantage.
Treasury secretary Steven Mnuchin also revealed that Beijing had agreed to open its markets to US financial service providers.
Nothing has been officially signed yet, but Trump was confident it would be in the coming weeks.
“China wants it badly, and we want it also,” he said.
“We should be able to get that (the agreement on paper) done over the next four weeks.”
He later added: “There was a lot of friction between the United States and China, and now it’s a lovefest – that’s a good thing.”
Although there were no updates on the planned tariffs due to come in during December that would hit almost every Chinese export, Liu did agree that “substantial progress in many fields” had been made.
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Global markets were encouraged by the news with hopes the 15-month trade war could be nearing its end.
In the US, the Dow Jones, S&P 500 and Nasdaq all rose by more than one per cent in Friday’s session.