US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin on Saturday appreciated the “historic” first stage of the trade agreement with China to mitigate the trade conflict between the two economic giants since last year.
Addressing the Doha Forum, Mnuchin said, “We finally have completed what I consider to be a historic phase one trade agreement”.
Mnuchin’s remarks came a day after both countries announced they had reached an agreement to settle the trade dispute that has had profound global consequences, Efe news reported.
The latest global growth forecasts lowered projections of expansion to 3 per cent this year, 0.2 less than in July, according to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) figures published in October.
“Let me just say this deals with intellectual property this deals with technology transfer it deals with structure agricultural issues, financial services are opening up currency, understandings as well as a commitment to purchase US agriculture and US goods,” Mnuchin further added.
On Friday, China and the US reached a partial agreement to mitigate the trade conflict facing both powers since last year.
President Donald Trump took to Twitter and said, “We have agreed to a very large Phase One Deal with China”.
On Thursday, Trump said that he is on the verge of easing the China trade war, days before new tariffs are due to kick in between the world’s two largest economies.
On Wednesday, 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.
President Trump and his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping both insisted that they would resist pressure to give ground on a trade deal that Washington’s leader said could be “very close.”
Trump further said that, when it comes to Hong Kong, he is balancing competing interests, stopping short of pledging to sign new US legislation to support the restive semi-autonomous city’s democracy movement.
The United States and China imposed steep tariffs on hundreds of billions of dollars in two-way trade, and another round of US duties are set to hit on December 15 on $160 billion in Chinese goods.
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.