China, U.S. Will Review Trade Deal, Air Grievances on August 15th
U.S. and Chinese officials will review the Phase One trade deal implementation and likely air grievances that both sides have on August 15th during a video conference. Two people familiar with the plans told Reuters that U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer and Chinese Vice Premier Liu He, the principal negotiators of the deal, will participate in the meeting, which will be a six-month review of the deal that became active on February 15th. The Wall Street Journal initially reported the details of the meeting between the two countries.
Under the deal, China pledged to boost purchases of U.S. goods by $200 billion over 2017 levels. Those purchases were to include agricultural and manufactured products, along with energy and other services. But China, like the rest of the world, has been hit hard by the coronavirus recession and fallen far behind the pace it needs to meet the first-year goal of a $77 billion increase. Imports of farm goods have also been lower than the 2017 level the agreement was based on. China’s ambassador to the U.S. says they always had a plan in place for high-level talks six months into the pact. U.S. President Trump threatened to end the deal over China’s handling of the coronavirus.
Tensions have risen over U.S. sanctions related to China’s crackdown on Hong Kong.
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