The U.S. and China are moving closer to agreeing on the amount of tariffs that would be rolled back in a phase-one trade deal despite tensions over Hong Kong and Xinjiang, people familiar with the talks said.<\/p>\n
The people, who asked not to be identified, said that U.S. President Donald Trump\u2019s comments Tuesday downplaying the urgency of a deal shouldn\u2019t be understood to mean the talks were stalling, as he was speaking off the cuff. Recent U.S. legislation seeking to sanction Chinese officials over human-rights issues in Hong Kong and Xinjiang are unlikely to impact the talks, one person familiar with Beijing\u2019s thinking said.<\/p>\n
U.S. negotiators expect a phase-one deal with China to be completed before American tariffs are set to rise on Dec. 15, the people said. Outstanding issues in the talks include how to guarantee China\u2019s purchases of U.S. agricultural goods and exactly which tariffs to roll back, they added.<\/p>\n
U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer\u2019s office didn\u2019t respond to a request for comment. China\u2019s Ministry of Commerce didn\u2019t immediately respond to a fax seeking comment on tariff rollbacks.<\/p>\n
When asked in Seoul about whether the trade talks can be finished this year, China\u2019s Foreign Minister Wang Yi said, \u201cit depends. China\u2019s stance is very clear. There is hope, as long as it is based on mutual respect and equal consultations,\u201d according to Phoenix TV.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The U.S. and China are moving closer to agreeing on the amount of tariffs that […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-822","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"yoast_head":"\n