U.S. President Trump said Sunday that he would delay tariffs on Chinese goods, thanks to progress in trade negotiations between the two sides, and that if progress continues, he and Chinese President Xi Jinping will reach an agreement.
Trump had planned to raise the tariff rate on $200 billion of Chinese imports from 10% to 25% if the two sides failed to reach an agreement by Friday.
Trump tweeted that the negotiations had made progress in a number of areas, including intellectual property protection, technology transfer, agriculture, services and exchange rates.
As a result of the talks, he said: "I will postpone the tariff increase plan originally scheduled for March 1 in the United States. If the two sides make further progress, we plan to hold a summit between Xi Jinping and me at Haihu Manor to reach an agreement. It's a very good weekend for the United States and China!"
Haihu Manor is a private manor in Trump, Florida, where Trump and Xi Jinping met.
The postponement of tariff increases is the clearest signal that both sides have sought breakthroughs since last year's 90-day ceasefire in the trade war was declared. The market may see this as a sign of the end of the Sino-US trade dispute, and it will be cheerful. The trade dispute has disrupted hundreds of billions of dollars in commodity trade and slowed global economic growth.
According to a source familiar with the negotiations, the US and Chinese negotiators discussed Sunday the thorny issue of how to implement potential trade agreements, after making progress on structural issues that led to differences.
Sources also said that the two sides also discussed tariffs and commodities.
U.S. officials said Friday that the talks would be extended to the weekend after negotiators reached an exchange rate agreement.
The two sides sought to balance their differences on the treatment, subsidies, compulsory technology transfer and network theft of Chinese state-owned enterprises.
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