No U.S. Deal Yet With China As Tariff Increase Date Approaches

Negotiators from the United State and China continued to discuss a potential limited trade pact last week, but no breakthrough was made in negotiations. If the impasse is not broken, the United States likely will move forward with a plan to raise tariffs on $160 billion in consumer products from China.

While U.S. and Chinese negotiators worked behind the scenes to reach an agreement, the White House sent varying messages about the urgency of arriving at a deal.

On Tuesday, President Donald Trump said he could wait until after the 2020 election to reach an agreement. Specifically, the president said, “I don’t have a deadline … I like the idea of waiting until after the election for the China deal. But they want to make a deal now and we’ll see whether or not the deal is going to be right.” In a television interview the same day, U.S. Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross, said the same thing and noted the United States will go ahead with its plan to add tariffs on Chinese products if nothing changes before December 15.

Top White House economic adviser Larry Kudlow also weighed in last week, however, telling reporters on Friday that a deal is “close.”

Stay tuned to Connecting the Dots for more information as these negotiations continue.