China and the US finalize the signing of their trade agreement

The Chinese Vice Premier, Liu He, will lead a delegation that will travel to Washington on Saturday to formalize phase one of the trade agreement between China and the United States (US), which was announced on December 13, according to the newspaper Chinese South China Morning Post, which cites an unidentified source.

“Washington sent an invitation and Beijing accepted it”, the source said on condition of anonymity, adding that the Chinese delegation is expected to remain in the US until the middle of next week.

The US trade representative, Robert Lighthizer, had indicated on December 13 that the intention of both countries was to sign the first phase of the agreement “in the first week of January.” In this sense, the American president, Donald Trump, had expressed before Christmas his will to hold a ceremony with the Chinese president, Xi Jinping, to formalize the new trade agreement between the US and China.

The two largest world economies announced on December 13 that they had reached an initial agreement to resolve their trade differences, as well as other issues such as technology transfers, financial services and intellectual property protection.

As part of the agreement, Washington had pledged to withdraw the additional tariffs imposed on Chinese exports, while the Asian giant will increase its imports of US energy and agricultural products

Source: dpa