US president Donald Trump to meet China’s Xi Jinping to seal the deal on trade talks

United States (US) president Donald Trump on Thursday said he will be meeting with Chinese president Xi Jinping soon to try to finalize on the trade deal. The statement comes after the representatives from both countries concluded their two-day trade talk in Washington, US, saying that the trade war negotiations had made major ‘progress’.

Mr Trump said the talks hailed ‘tremendous progress’ and was optimistic that the world’s two largest economies could reach the ‘biggest deal ever made’.

Although no concrete details were made on the upcoming meeting with Mr Xi, Mr Trump said that more than one meeting could pan out. As of now, US’ trade representative Robert Lighthizer and treasury secretary Steven Mnuchin have been invited to bring a negotiating team to China around mid-February.

The talks this week have been ‘very intense, detailed, and specific’, said Mr Lighthizer. Some headway was made from the talks, he added.

‘We have to get this (the deal) put on paper at some point if we agree. There’re some points that we don't agree to yet. I think we will agree. I think when President Xi and myself meet, every point will be agreed to,’ Mr Trump said.

The US has been focusing on agendas such as alleged Chinese theft of intellectual property, technology transfers, and the ownership of American companies in China.

China to increase imports of agricultural, energy products

So far, China has agreed to increase their imports of ‘US agricultural products, energy products, industrial manufactured goods and service products’, according to Beijing’s news agency Xinhua news.

Through the talks, the top negotiator representing China, vice premier Liu He told Mr Trump the country would commit immediately to more soybean purchases. The amount will be at 5 million tonnes, doubling from the current amount bought by China since it resumed limited purchases in December.

Both countries have until March 1, the day the 90-day truce ends, to come to a deal. Once that is over, US tariffs on hundreds of billions in Chinese exports will increase sharply if the problems have not been resolved.