US President Donald Trump said on Tuesday that he and Chinese President Xi Jinping will have a signing ceremony to sign the first phase of the US-China trade deal agreed to this month.
Trump said, “We will be having a signing ceremony, yes”.
“We will ultimately, yes, when we get together. And we’ll be having a quicker signing because we want to get it done. The deal is done, it’s just being translated right now”, he added.
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Geng Shuang said while speaking to the media on Wednesday that both countries were in close contact.
Last week, a spokesman for China’s Commerce Ministry said that Beijing has not yet confirmed specific components of the deal that were released by US officials.
Chinese President Xi Jinping said that phase one economic and trade deal between China and the US does not only benefits the two economic giants but also the whole world.
According to the two countries, the phase one agreement addresses issues including technology transfer, intellectual property, trade expansion and the establishment of mechanisms for dispute resolution.
Earlier, an American trade coalition urged President Trump to reach a “phase one” deal with China in an effort to resolve the ongoing trade war between the US and China.
Last month, China and the US were “moving closer to agreeing” on a “phase one” trade deal.
In September, the US had imposed fresh tariffs on $112 billion worth of Chinese imported goods, marking a sharp escalation of the bruising trade war between the world’s two largest economies.
Donald Trump launched the trade war as part of his “America First” bid to lower a wide trade deficit with China, but the tariffs imposed thus far have barely made a dent in that gap.