Apparently, the trade war hit another snag.
Unfortunately, the U.S. and China are still haggling over farm purchases. For example, President Trump said China agreed to buy up to $50 billion worth of soybeans, pork and other agricultural products from the U.S. However, China doesn’t want to commit to that number.
“Beijing wants to avoid cutting a deal that looks more favorable to the U.S. than to China, some of the people said, and also wants to have flexibility within the agreement should trade tensions escalate again,” says The Wall Street Journal.
China wants the U.S. to rollback all tariffs as part of the ‘phase one’ deal.
“The trade war was begun with adding tariffs, and should be ended by canceling these additional tariffs. This is an important condition for both sides to reach an agreement,” China’s Ministry of Commerce spokesperson Gao Feng said, as quoted by CNBC.
“If both sides reach a phase one agreement, the level of tariff rollback will fully reflect the importance of the phase one agreement.”
But we’re not so sure President Trump is on board with a rollback.
Remember, he has noted that while trade talks were moving along “very nicely,” as highlighted by Reuters, the U.S. would only make the deal if it was good for America. “The trade talks with China are moving along, I think, very nicely and if we make the deal that we want it will be a great deal and if it’s not a great deal, I won’t make it.”
