Trade Wars Are Easy! President Trump To Sign Phase One Trade Deal With China

In early December, the United States and China announced a preliminary Phase One trade deal. Despite indications that the two nations would sign the agreement on Friday, December 13, U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer is now indicating that he expects the deal to be formally signed in the first week of January. USTR has released a fact sheet detailing the terms of the agreement.

But on Friday the U.S. did formally announce that it would suspend the planned List 4B tariffs, which would have levied a 15 percent tariff on roughly $160 billion worth of Chinese imports (meaning practically all goods imported from China would face tariffs). Those tariffs would have taken effect on Sunday, December 15 and will now be suspended indefinitely.

The Phase One deal reportedly includes the following:

• Rollback of existing China tariffs on List 4A from 15 percent to 7.5 percent (this is a change from last week’s reporting, which indicated that all tariffs would be cut by 50 percent)
  • It is unclear when these rollbacks will take effect, or what China will do with its current retaliatory tariffs
  • USTR “expects to issue in the near future” a notice regarding this rate reduction
  • These tariffs will snap back if China does not follow through
• China to purchase additional U.S. goods, including at least $40 billion in agricultural goods
• China to expand access to its financial services market and include language on currency and intellectual property in the deal
• China to increase purchases of U.S. goods and services by about $200 billion within two years
• China to stop compelling foreign companies to hand over technology to operate in Chinese market

Notably, tariffs will stay at 25 percent for Lists 1-3, a change from last week’s reporting. According to President Trump, these tariffs will be leverage for extracting concessions from China in a second phase of talks.

For more information, contact Samantha Rocci at srocci@rvia.org.

UPDATE: President Trump signed the Phase One Deal on January 15, 2020.

• Click here to review the Economic And Trade Agreement Between The United States And China.
• Click here to review the US/China Agreement Fact Sheet.