U.S. President Donald Trump poses for a photo with China's President Xi Jinping before their bilateral meeting during the G20 leaders summit in Osaka, Japan.after high-level telephone discussions on Friday, the US Trade Representative’s office and China’s Commerce Ministry said, with talks to continue.“They made headway on specific issues and the two sides are close to finalizing some sections of the agreement.
Beijing wants the United States to cancel some existing US tariffs on Chinese imports, people briefed on the Friday call told Reuters, in return for pledging to step up its purchases of US commodities like soybeans. “They want to make a deal very badly,” Trump told reporters at the White House on Friday. “They’re going to be buying much more farm products than anybody thought possible.”
Beijing is also seeking removal of 15% tariffs imposed on Sept. 1 on about $125 billion of Chinese goods, one of the sources said. Trump imposed the tariffs in August after a failed round of talks. “The Chinese want to get back to tariffs on just the original $250 billion in goods,” the source said.In the decade before Trump took office, China’s purchases of US agriculture and related products tripled, reaching $25.2 billion in 2016. But they dropped to $13.
An intellectual property rights chapter in the agreement largely deals with copyright and trademark issues and pledges to curb technology transfers that Beijing has already put into a new investment law, people familiar with the discussions said.If an agreement on China buying US agricultural products can be sealed, Beijing in return would exempt some US agricultural products from tariffs, including soybeans, wheat and corn, a China-based source told Reuters.
USTR head Robert Lighthizer has emphasized China’s agreement to remove some restrictions on US genetically modified crops and other food safety barriers, which US sources say could pave the way for much higher US farm exports to China.