China and the United States have agreed to proportionally roll back tariffs on each other’s goods in phases, a Ministry of Commerce spokesman said.
The amount of tariff relief that would come in the first phase, set to be signed in the coming weeks, would depend on the content of that agreement, Spokesman Gao Feng said on Thursday without giving further details. The two sides had “constructive talks” in the past two weeks, he said.
Meanwhile, President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping may not be able to sign a partial trade deal until December, and two US locations have been ruled out for their highly anticipated meeting, according to a person familiar with the matter.
The two sides have been trying to negotiate a limited trade deal that would entail the US dropping some tariffs on Chinese imports in exchange for Beijing resuming purchases of American farm goods and other products.
The US-China trade war that Trump began has been a drag on both nation’s economies, and the leaders had initially expected to take a step toward resolving it ahead of the 2020 US elections at an international summit in Chile this month. The summit was canceled because of protests in the capital, Santiago.
US locations for a Trump-Xi meeting that had been proposed by the White House, including Iowa and Alaska, have been ruled out, the person said. Locations in Asia and Europe are now being considered instead, the person said, asking not to be identified because the discussions aren’t public.
“Negotiations are continuing and progress is being made on the text of the phase-one agreement,” White House Spokesman Judd Deere said. “We will let you know when we have an announcement on a signing location.”
Reuters reported earlier that the signing might be delayed and likely wouldn’t occur in the US.
Trump administration officials in recent days have expressed optimism that phase one of a comprehensive trade deal might come together this month, helping boost equity markets to records this week.
“I think we’re in good shape, we’re making good progress, and there’s no natural reason why it couldn’t be” signed this month, US Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross told Bloomberg Television in an interview on Sunday in Bangkok. “But whether it will slip a little bit, who knows, it’s always possible.”
