US President Donald Trump in a statement on Thursday said that the United States and China are on the verge of signing an agreement on bilateral trade
WASHINGTON (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 12th December, 2019) US President Donald Trump in a statement on Thursday said that the United States and China are on the verge of signing an agreement on bilateral trade."Getting VERY close to a BIG DEAL with China. They want it, and so do we!" Trump said via Twitter.
Trump gave no details but the Wall Street Journal reported that US negotiators have offered to slash existing tariffs by as much as half on roughly $360 billion of Chinese-made goods and to cancel a new round of levies set to take effect on Sunday, December 15.
The tariff-reduction offer was made in the past five days or so, the Journal said based on unnamed sources, and in exchange, the US side has demanded that Beijing make firm commitments to purchase large quantities of US agricultural and other products, to better protect US intellectual-property rights and to allow greater access to China's financial-services sector.
Should China not honor those commitments as part of the potential deal, the tariff rates would return to their original levels, a clause known in trade negotiations as a "snapback" provision, the Journal said.
Negotiators face a midnight deadline on Sunday, when a new set of tariffs on $156 billion of Chinese goods is slated to take effect.
Analysts and government officials from many nations routinely cite the US-China trade war has a key reason for a slowdown in global economic growth.
