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China hopes to reach phased trade pact with US as early as possible

This article is more than 12 months old

BEIJING China's commerce ministry said yesterday that China hoped to reach a phased agreement with the US over trade as early as possible, and make progress on cancelling tariffs on each others' goods.

A phased agreement would help restore market confidence and reduce uncertainty, Mr Gao Feng, spokesman at the ministry, told reporters, adding that both sides were maintaining close communication.

On Oct 11, US President Donald Trump outlined the first phase of a deal to end the trade war with China and suspended a threatened tariff hike, but officials on both sides said much more work needed to be done before an accord could be agreed.

PHASE 1

Mr Trump had originally planned to proceed with a hike in tariffs to 30 per cent from 25 per cent on about US$250 billion (S$340 billion) worth of Chinese goods last week.

But the US administration has yet to make a decision on how to address planned 10 per cent tariffs on roughly US$156 billion of Chinese goods due to take effect on Dec 15.

US and Chinese trade negotiators are working on nailing down a Phase 1 trade deal text for their presidents to sign next month, US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said on Wednesday.

Mr Mnuchin said the Trump administration's "objective" was for the agreement to be signed between the presidents of the two countries at a Nov 16-17 summit of Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation countries in Santiago, Chile.

Working-level representatives from both countries are working on specifics of an agreement now, Mr Gao said.

China's securities regulator on Friday unveiled a firm timetable for scrapping foreign ownership limits in futures, securities and mutual fund companies for the first time.

Increasing foreign access to the sector is among the US demands at the trade talks. A day before, the US Department of Agriculture confirmed net sales of 142,172 tonnes of US pork to China in the week ended Oct 3, the largest weekly sale to the world's top pork market on record. - REUTERS

BUSINESS & FINANCE