US and China agree to establish trade deal enforcement offices
US treasury secretary Steven Mnuchin has said that the US and China have agreed on a mechanism to police any trade deal reached between the two countries.
Mnuchin said it would include establishing “enforcement offices” to implement trade agreement monitoring.
During an interview with CNBC television on Wednesday, Mnuchin said talks were progressing after a “productive” call with China’s vice premier Liu He. He alos said talks were resuming early on Thursday.
US tariffs on China
When Mnuchin was asked about the status of the US tariffs on $250 billion worth of Chinese goods, he declined to comment on whether they would be removed.
‘We've pretty much agreed on an enforcement mechanism, we've agreed that both sides will establish enforcement offices that will deal with the ongoing matters,’ Mnuchin said.
US president Donald Trump had previously mentioned a deal could be likely around the end of April. However, Mnuchin emphasised that Trump was focused on getting the “right deal”, and that Trump would be willing to meet with Presdient Xi Jingping to get the right deal finalised.
Reforms on US intellectual property
The US has demanded that China implement reforms around theft of US intellectual property and cease forced transfers of technology from American companies to Chinese companies.
Mnuchin said he and US trade representative Robert Lighthizer, were focused on the implementation of drafting the documents in the trade agreement.
According to Reuters reports, the two sides are working on broad agreements covering six areas including: forced technology transfer and cyber theft, intellectual property rights, services, currency, agricu Existing tariffs
Earlier in the week the US and China agreed on an enforcement structure to give the US the right to retaliate if China does not honour the terms of agreement, according to US officials.
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