A senior administration official cautioned on Sunday that a decision had not yet been made over lifting the U.S tariffs. The official also said a debate was continuing inside the administration with Trump unlikely to make a decision before a deal was closer to being done, likening to situation to the debate over what to do with U.S. sanctions in the lead-up to last week’s summit with North Korea’s Kim Jong Un.
Asked during a congressional hearing last week whether a deal would see a lifting of U.S. tariffs, Robert Lighthizer, the China hawk now leading the talks with Beijing, would say only that was China’s desire.
Bloomberg reported Friday that the U.S. and China were close to finalizing a trade deal.
Trump and members of his economic team have has sounded optimistic about the chances for sealing a deal. And U.S. stocks have rebounded from their worst December since the Great Depression on signs the world’s two largest economies are resolving their trade differences without further escalation.
Truce Extended
Citing progress toward a deal, Trump last week delayed a planned increase of tariffs on Chinese imports to 25 percent, from 10 percent, that was scheduled to take effect March 1.
On Friday, Trump said he demanded Beijing, in response to his tariff delay, immediately remove all duties on U.S. agriculture products.
The Chinese have offered to ramp up purchases of American goods by $1.2 trillion over six years, according to a person familiar with the matter. It’s still unclear how Beijing would follow through on those purchases if retaliatory tariffs remained in place and other trading barriers aren’t removed, the person added. China bought $130 billion in U.S. goods in 2017, according to U.S. figures.
After several rounds of face-to-face meetings between U.S. and Chinese officials since last year, the sides are now in regular contact via phone and video-conference to hammer out the details of a deal.
This article was provided by Bloomberg News.