China’s deadline to reach a trade deal with the U.S. may slide after the Trump administration had “very positive” conversations with their counterparts from Beijing, U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer said Sunday.
Greer said China’s timeframe for a deal was “under discussion” when asked about the current Aug. 12 deadline during an appearance on CBS’ “Face the Nation.”
“So that’s what’s under discussion right now,” he said. “I would say that our conversations with the Chinese have been very positive. We have discussions at the staff level, at my level. President Xi and President Trump have had conversations.”
Tariffs on China, America’s largest trading partner, could snap back up to above 80% if a deal is not reached.
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“We’re working on some technical issues, and we’re talking to the president about it,” he said. “I think it’s going in a positive direction. I’m not going to get ahead of the president, but I don’t think anyone wants to see those tariffs snap back to 84%.”
Greer said the two governments did agree to certain commitments during two days of talks in Stockholm last week, though he said he couldn’t divulge details on the specifics.
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“We talked about, and I won’t go into detail, because they’re confidential conversations between two governments, but they really focused on rare earth magnets and minerals,” he said.
The U.S. is looking to free the flow of magnets from China and its adjacent supply chain, according to Greer.
“I’d say we’re about halfway there,” he said.
In April, Trump stunned markets with a sweeping 145% tariff on Chinese imports, prompting an immediate response from President Xi Jinping, who slapped a 125% tariff on U.S. goods. A temporary 90-day truce followed, bringing tariffs back down to roughly 30% for Chinese goods entering the U.S. and 10% for U.S. exports to China.
Fox Business’ Morgan Phillips and Edward Lawrence contributed to this report.
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