China reaches consensus with US on core trade issues

Washington DC: China has reached a consensus with US trade negotiators on core bilateral trade issues after conducting high-level telephonic talks, the Chinese Ministry of Commerce said in a statement on Friday. "On the evening of November 1 ... Chinese leader of the China-US Comprehensive Economic Dialogue (Liu He) spoke to US Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin," the statement said.

"The two sides conducted serious and constructive discussions on properly addressing their core concerns and reached consensus on principles," it added. The Commerce Ministry noted that both sides also discussed the next consultation arrangements. The White House said in a separate statement that trade negotiators had a constructive call on 'Phase One' of the US-China trade deal and made progress in a variety of areas in the process of resolving outstanding issues.

On Thursday, US President Donald Trump said that the United States and China are working to find a new location to sign the preliminary Phase One trade deal, which will be announced soon. Phase One of the trade negotiations is supposed to resolve issues regarding intellectual property, financial service and US agricultural exports.

Trump said China agreed to purchase USD 40 billion to USD 50 billion of US farm goods under the agreement. Phase One pact could ease the looming US-China trade war, which has prompted economists to say that the trade confrontation may lead to a global recession.