US-China Trade Deal will be Signed on Jan 15 – Donald Trump

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WASHINGTON: At the White House US on Tuesday President Donald Trump said that Phase 1 of trade deal with China would be signed on Jan. 15.

US president Donald Trump has said he will sign a “phase one” trade deal in the presence of high-level representatives from China at the White House on January 15.

Tuesday in a tweet, Mr Trump said he will travel to Beijing at a later date to begin “phase two” talks.

Washington and Beijing on December 13 reached a limited agreement to pause the trade war between the countries, in which more than half a trillion dollars of goods have been hit with new levies.

On Chinese consume goods, the US agreed not to impose fresh levies on $156bn and agreed to halve tariffs on $120bn of imports that were introduced in September. For the moment, China assured to increase imports from the US, such as agricultural purchases, and promised better protection of intellectual property rights.

“I will be signing our very large and comprehensive Phase One Trade Deal with China on January 15,” Mr Trump said. “The ceremony will take place at the White House. High level representatives of China will be present. At a later date I will be going to Beijing where talks will begin on Phase Two!”

The exact terms of the 86-page agreement have not been made public and are being translated and reviewed by the two sides.

A year and half ago, the United States launched a trade war against Beijing over allegations of unfair trade practices, such as theft of U.S. intellectual property and subsidies that unfairly benefit Chinese state-owned companies.

The deal was particularly hard on U.S. agricultural producers, who were cut off or severely reduced in their access to the Chinese market.

The United States Trade Representative said the Phase 1 deal includes stronger Chinese legal protections for patents, trademarks, copyrights, including improved criminal and civil procedures to combat online infringement, pirated and counterfeit goods. Issues such as industrial subsidies would be addressed in a later deal, U.S. authorities said.