Trump: "Phase 2 US-China Trade Deal May Wait Until After the Election"

[Image source=EPA Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Jeong Hyunjin] As the United States and China prepare for the signing ceremony of the Phase One trade agreement, U.S. President Donald Trump hinted that the Phase Two trade agreement could take place "after the November U.S. presidential election."

According to the White House on the 9th (local time), President Trump made this remark while announcing plans to revise the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) and responding to reporters' questions about what he hopes to gain from the Phase Two trade agreement. President Trump said, "We will start Phase Two negotiations immediately. This will take some time." He expressed hope that the Phase Two trade agreement would be finalized after the election, explaining, "I think that way we can achieve a substantially better deal."

President Trump announced that the signing ceremony for the Phase One trade agreement will be held at the White House on the 15th. The Chinese Ministry of Commerce also announced the day before that Chinese Vice Premier Liu He will lead a delegation to Washington DC from the 13th to the 15th to sign the Phase One agreement. Last month, both the U.S. and China agreed that the U.S. would not impose new additional tariffs on China and would reduce some tariffs, while China would increase purchases of U.S. agricultural products. Robert Lighthizer, U.S. Trade Representative (USTR), said the agreement text would be made public after the signing.

President Trump has been praising the Phase One trade agreement as a "wonderful deal." On this day as well, he said that China's imports of U.S. agricultural products will increase to about $50 billion, adding, "It's almost all for the farmers." Although the specific details of China's imports of U.S. agricultural products have not been disclosed and China has not revealed them either, President Trump has consistently mentioned the figure of $50 billion.

Meanwhile, within the United States, analyses have been released indicating that the Trump administration's trade war has increased burdens on American companies.

On this day, business coalitions opposing high tariffs, such as THH (Tariffs Hurt the Heartland), announced that during the trade war from February 2018 to November last year, Americans incurred approximately $46 billion (about 53.3 trillion KRW) in additional costs. According to this analysis based on U.S. Department of Commerce statistics, tariffs imposed on Americans amounted to $6.2 billion in November last year alone. This is more than double the $2.8 billion burden in November 2017, before the trade war began.

Earlier, on the 6th, the private economic research organization National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) also released an analysis stating that "almost 100%" of the costs were passed on to American buyers.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.