China presses US for more tariff roll-backs in 'phase one' trade deal

The Chinese Government has asked the Trump administration to lift the tariffs imposed last September in the first phase of the US-China trade deal, as per reports. The US is expected to scrap these tariffs worth $156 billion of Chinese imports, including cell phones, laptop computers and toys on December 15 when both the Presidents of China and the US sign the deal. The fate of tariffs which will be confirmed at the deal is the main topic of negotiations this month confirmed a US official to media. Chinese negotiators want Washington to drop 15% tariffs on about $125 billion worth of Chinese goods regulated since September 1.

Relief from 25% tariffs on about $250 billion of imports from machinery and semiconductors to furniture is also expected by China, added another official while speaking on the negotiations. As per reports, the White House too was considering whether to roll back the September 1 tariffs, which cover some clothing items, flat-screen televisions, smart speakers and Bluetooth headphones. Trump, at the same time, had said on Friday evening that negotiations on the initial phase agreement were going well and he hoped to sign the deal with Xi. 

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Ralph Winnie, director of the China program at the Eurasia Center, said that the deal is a win-win for both countries as it mutually affects their trades and economies.

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China will continue to do what it was doing: Analysts

Trump administration has been asking China to curb massive subsidies to state-owned firms and end the forced transfer of American technology to Chinese firms as a price of doing business in China. The phase 1 deal fails to address the aforementioned issue of industrial subsidies and rather focuses on Chinese purchases of US farm goods and intellectual property protection related to copyright and trademark issues said trade analysts to media. Charles Boustany, a former congressman from Louisiana and counselor at the National Bureau of Asian Research, said that China will anyway continue to do what it's doing and the deal will just be the status quo. Moreover, inconsistencies in China’s new foreign investment law will fail to fulfill the benefits of increased access to China’s financial services market, they added. 

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Beijing’s draft regulations do not address clear differences between the treatment of China’s state-owned enterprises and the private sector said the US financial institutions. 

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