Companies, workers and lawmakers in three countries have spent the past year in limbo awaiting final touches on the U.S.-Mexico-Canada free-trade agreement. Now they have a better sense of who won—and who lost.
The Trump administration and China are close to finalizing an agreement that would suspend tariffs that are set to kick in Sunday, de-escalating their 17-month trade war.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Tuesday announced agreement on a modified North American trade pact, handing President Donald Trump a major Capitol Hill victory on the very same day that Democrats announced their impeachment charges against him.
When the trade deal was reached in September, Trump said it would mean opening Japan’s market to about $7 billion in U.S. farm goods, with tariffs lowered or scrapped on American beef, pork, wheat, cheese, corn and wine.
President Trump said he has “no deadline” for a deal and didn’t mind waiting until after the election next year to make one. Investors had been hoping for a deal this year, or at least enough progress to stave off new U.S. tariffs on Chinese goods scheduled to start Dec. 15.
Top Chinese and U.S. trade negotiators agreed to continue to work toward a preliminary agreement for resolving their tariff war, the Chinese Commerce Ministry said Tuesday.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Monday that Democratic lawmakers are “within range of a substantially improved” trade agreement with Canada and Mexico, but that they need to see progress made in negotiations put into writing by U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer for “final review.”
Echoing the upbeat tone adopted by other Chinese officials in recent days, Chinese President Xi Jinping told a visiting U.S. business delegation that China holds a “positive attitude” toward the trade talks.
Moving ahead on the trade deal could signal that Democrats and Republicans can work on substantive issues even as the House pursues a divisive impeachment case against President Trump.
The prospects for a preliminary breakthrough in the U.S.-China trade war improved Thursday after the two sides agreed to reduce some punitive tariffs on each other’s goods, though the full extent of the rollback wasn’t clear.
The two sides have agreed to reduce some punitive tariffs on each other’s goods as talks on ending their trade war progress, a Chinese spokesman said Thursday, removing a possible stumbling block to a settlement.
China on Tuesday promised more improvements in conditions for foreign companies including an end to officials pressing them to hand over technology—a key irritant in its tariff war with Washington, D.C.
Vice President Mike Pence’s speech was delivered as President Donald Trump seeks to close a new trade deal with China, with Pence cast in a hard-line role. He criticized past administrations for tolerating unfair economic and trade practices and repressing Chinese citizens.
Johnson responded to the parliamentary beatdown with emphatic finger-jabbing. The prime minister insisted, “I’m not daunted or dismayed by this particular result.”
Negotiators working through the night in Brussels came to an agreement Thursday morning after Prime Minister Boris Johnson signed on despite lingering questions about warring Brexit factions in London. The agreement would still need approval by European leaders and the British Parliament.
Companies see a U.S.-Chinese trade truce as a possible step toward breaking a deadlock in a 15-month-old tariff war, while economists caution there was little progress toward settling core disputes including technology that threaten global growth.
Financial markets, highly sensitive to the ups and downs of the U.S.-China economic relationship, surged Friday morning. The Dow Jones industrial average was up more than 420 points, or 1.6%, in late-morning trading.
President Donald Trump offered an upbeat assessment of U.S.-China trade talks and said he would meet at the White House on Friday with the leader of the Chinese negotiating team.
China demanded Washington, D.C., lift newly imposed sanctions on Chinese tech companies but said Tuesday that envoys will go ahead with a U.S. trip for trade talks despite the latest spike in tensions.
The trade wars threatening to push the global economy into recession are entering a new phase, with the United States and European Union escalating a dispute that endangers the world’s biggest trade relationship.
