World stocks inched to a record high on Thursday after the United States and China signed a deal to defuse their 18-month trade war, which has weighed on global economic growth and hampered investments.
United States and China agreed on Friday to the first phase of a deal to end a trade war, prompting President Donald Trump to suspend a threatened tariff hike, but officials said the agreement had to be put on paper and more work was required to get it finalized.
U.S. President Donald Trump on Monday questioned a decision by his top trade negotiators to ask Chinese officials to delay a planned trip to U.S. farming regions after trade talks last week, saying he wanted China to buy more American farm products.
US President Donald Trump said on Thursday that he had received a “beautiful letter” from Chinese President Xi Jinping, as negotiations on a trade deal between the two countries continue in Washington.
Top US and Chinese trade negotiators concluded the first of two days of talks on Thursday to rescue a trade deal that is close to collapsing as Washington prepares to go ahead with plans to hike tariffs on hundreds of billions of dollars of goods imported from China.
Donald Trump has said he will raise tariffs on US$ 200bn of Chinese goods because talks on a US-China trade deal are moving “too slowly”. The US president tweeted that tariffs of 10% on certain goods would rise to 25% on Friday, and US$ 325bn of untaxed goods could face 25% duties “shortly”.
The US and China are due to begin a fresh round of talks in Beijing on Tuesday as they edge closer to resolving their damaging trade dispute. The discussions will be led by US Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer and Chinese Vice Premier Liu He.
The United States and China have largely agreed on a mechanism to police any trade agreement they reach, including establishing new enforcement offices, U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said on Wednesday.
US officials plan to travel to China next week to resume face-to-face talks aimed at ending a trade war between them, the White House has confirmed. And Chinese officials will travel to the US for further talks in Washington in early April.
U.S. President Donald Trump said on Thursday he will meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping soon to try to seal a comprehensive trade deal as Trump and his top trade negotiator both cited substantial progress in two days of high-level talks.