"The United States Trade Representative (USTR) will commence on 1 November 2019 a process for considering extending for up to twelve months certain exclusions from additional tariffs on Chinese imports that were granted last December and are set to expire on December 28, 2019", the release said on Monday.
According to the release, once the notice is published in the Federal Register this week, the US Trade Representative will have a public commenting period from November 1-30.
Liu, speaking in China last week in his first public comments on the trade talks since his meeting with Trump, stated that the two countries made "concrete progress" in many areas, laying an important foundation for the signing of a phased agreement, media reported.
Liu has added that negotiations must be held on the basis of equal and mutual respect to address the two countries’ core concerns.
On 13 October, US President Donald Trump announced he had agreed in principle to a 'phase one' trade deal with China’s Vice Premier Liu He after high-level negotiations between the two sides in Washington. Trump has said the deal includes China agreeing to raise its US agricultural purchases to between $40 billion and $50 billion in addition to making reforms concerning intellectual property and financial services.
The United States was also due to raise tariffs on Chinese exports from 25 percent to 30 percent on 15 October, but that planned increase appears to be on hold as well.
Washington and Beijing have been waging a tariff war since last year. The US has blamed China for creating a trade imbalance and imposed additional tariffs on a vast list of Chinese products, while Beijing retaliated with its own tariffs on US goods. The escalating tensions gravely affected international trade, slowing down the global growth for up to 0.6%. After several rounds of talks, the sides came close to striking a trade deal in May, but failed, leading to another series of trade restrictions.
