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Teddy Ng

China and the United States have made “concrete progress” on the text of their trade agreement, Chinese state media reported on Friday.
Xinhua reported that Chinese Vice-Premier Liu He held a telephone conversation with US Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer and US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin on Thursday.
“The two sides have further made concrete progress on the text of the trade agreement between the two sides,” the report said, without giving further details.
The statement came after US President Donald Trump said Washington would know where things stood regarding a possible trade deal with China in the next three or four weeks.




“We’ll have news on China. Probably one way or the other, we’re going to know over the next three to four weeks,” Trump said during a St Patrick’s Day reception in the White House’s East Room.
He said China had been “very responsible and very reasonable”.
“If that one gets done, it will be something that people will be talking about for a long time,” Trump said.
The world’s two largest economies have been embroiled in a trade war since July 6. The two countries agreed to suspend further tariff increases after several rounds of talks, but details of a potential agreement to end the dispute are yet to be finalised, with an enforcement mechanism and reform of China’s state-owned enterprises among the key difficulties.




Mnuchin said after a US Senate finance committee hearing on Thursday that the two sides were “working in good faith” to try to reach a deal “as quickly as possible”, but that a summit between Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping to seal a trade deal would not happen at the end of March as had been suggested previously.
“There’s still a lot of work to do, but we’re very comfortable with where we are,” Mnuchin said. “I don’t think there’s anything significantly different on the currency issue from where we were last time.”
At a separate hearing in the House of Representatives on Thursday, Mnuchin said he expected elements of the discussions to be resolved in the near future, as the two sides pore over a 150-page document they are working on.
US news network CNBC reported on Thursday that Chinese negotiators had suggested combining a long-discussed state visit by Xi to the US with the announcement of any forthcoming trade deal, citing three sources briefed on discussions.
If confirmed, the state visit to the US would reciprocate Trump’s visit to Beijing in November 2017. The report said discussion of Xi’s state visit had been under way since last year.
It was unclear how receptive the White House had been to Beijing’s informal proposal, the report added.
Additional reporting by Reuters


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US-China trade war

China and US make ‘concrete progress’ on trade deal text

US Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer (left) and Chinese Vice-Premier Liu He discussed the trade deal text by telephone on Thursday. Photo: Reuters

China, US will ‘redouble efforts and speed up’ trade talks, Chinese Vice-Premier Liu He says

US President Donald Trump watches as Chinese Vice-Premier Liu He (left) speaks with US Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer (right) in the Oval Office on Friday. Photo: AFP

(FILES) US President Donald Trump (L) sits with Chinese President Xi Jinping (R) during a bilateral meeting at the Mar-a-Lago estate in West Palm Beach, Florida, on April 6, 2017. While the new US president has shown a capacity to change, both his tone and his positions, he has been unable to show the world a "new" Trump, with a steady presidential style and a clearly articulated worldview. As the symbolic milestone of his 100th day in power, which falls on April 29, 2017, draws near, a cold, hard reality is setting in for the billionaire businessman who promised Americans he would "win, win, win" for them. At this stage of his presidency, he is the least popular US leader in modern history (even if his core supporters are still totally behind him.) / AFP PHOTO / JIM WATSON / TO GO WITH AFP STORY, US-politics-Trump-100days

U.S. President Donald Trump, left, speaks during a trade meeting with Liu He, China's vice premier and director of the central leading group of the Chinese Communist Party, right, in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, D.C., U.S., on Friday, Feb. 22, 2019. The U.S. and China will extend into the weekend the current round of trade talks in Washington as negotiations yielded progress on currency policy but stopped short of a breakthrough that prevents higher American tariffs from kicking in next week. Photographer: Al Drago/Bloomberg

Chinese Vice-Premier Liu He discusses trade deal text with US’ Robert Lighthizer and Steven Mnuchin

Chinese Vice-Premier Liu He is flanked by US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin (left) and Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer at the White House in February. Photo: Xinhua

News

China

Diplomacy

Xinhua reports phone conversation between Chinese Vice-Premier Liu He and US’ Robert Lighthizer and Steven Mnuchin
Donald Trump expects outcome in three to four weeks


Xinhua reports phone conversation between Chinese Vice-Premier Liu He and US’ Robert Lighthizer and Steven Mnuchin, after Donald Trump says he expects an outcome in three to four weeks.


US-China trade war: All stories

US-China relations

Liu He

China and US make ‘concrete progress’ on trade deal text

Xinhua reports phone conversation between Chinese Vice-Premier Liu He and US’ Robert Lighthizer and Steven Mnuchin Donald Trump expects outcome in three to four weeks

Xinhua reports phone conversation between Chinese Vice-Premier Liu He and US’ Robert Lighthizer and Steven Mnuchin

Donald Trump expects outcome in three to four weeks