President Trump Announces He’s Reached ‘Substantial Phase One Deal’ with China

CNBC reports more details:

The U.S. has come to a “very substantial phase one deal” with China in the high-stakes trade negotiations between the two economic superpowers, President Donald Trump said Friday.

“Phase two will start almost immediately” after the first phase is signed, Trump said in the Oval Office alongside Chinese Vice Premier Liu He.

The first portion of the trade deal will be written over the next three weeks, Trump said. It will address intellectual property and financial services concerns, along with purchases of about $40 billion to $50 billion worth of agricultural products by China, Trump said.

It’s a “tremendous deal for the farmers,” Trump said.

Asked what changed between these trade negotiations and prior discussions — talks broke down in May, for instance, leading to a sharp rise in tensions and the imposition of tariffs on billions of dollars worth of goods — Trump said it’s because this deal is “bigger.”

Liu, asked the same question by CNBC, summed up the difference as “cooperation.”

“We have a fundamental understanding of the key issues, but there is more work to do,” Mnuchin said, CNBC’s Eamon Javers reported.

Mnuchin said the U.S. will even be evaluating whether to rescind its decision in August to designate China a “currency manipulator.”

“We’ve made a lot of progress over the last two days,” Mnuchin said.

Both sides in the long-running talks, which resumed at the top level this week, have signaled optimism about coming to an agreement of some sort in the near future.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average jumped more than 300 points on the day.

Earlier Friday, Trump said in a tweet that Washington and Beijing are sharing “warmer feelings” during this round of talks than in the “recent past.”

The president later assured that “When the deal is fully negotiated, I sign it myself on behalf of our Country. Fast and Clean!”

And from Fox News:

President Trump lauded the partial trade agreement he struck with China this week, calling it the “greatest and best” deal in a tweet Saturday morning.

As part of the deal -- which Trump and President Xi Jinping could sign as soon as next month -- China agreed to raise its agricultural purchases to between $40 billion and $50 billion from $8 billion to $16 billion and to make certain reforms on intellectual property and financial services. The U.S. will not raise tariffs on Oct. 15 from 25 percent to 30 percent.

It’s still unclear whether Trump plans to halt another round of tariffs that are set to take effect on Dec. 15.

“The deal I just made with China is, by far, the greatest and biggest deal ever made for our Great Patriot Farmers in the history of our Country,” he wrote. “In fact, there is a question as to whether or not this much product can be produced? Our farmers will figure it out. Thank you China!”

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Phase two negotiations are expected to begin immediately after the first agreement is signed. (China’s trade team is not calling the decision a “deal,” but rather a pause in the 15-month long tit-for-tat tariff war).

“Other aspects of the deal are also great,” Trump said on Saturday. “But WOW, the Farmers really hit pay dirt!”

Farmers -- an important voting base for Trump -- have been one of the biggest casualties of the trade war. 

China is the biggest buyer of U.S. soybeans, importing more than $12.4 billion worth of the oil seed in 2017, according to the Peterson Institute for International Economics. Retaliatory tariffs by China resulted in U.S. soybean exports to China falling by more than 80 percent, though sales accelerated ahead of the talks in Washington this week.

Watch President Trump announce the deal live from the Oval Office with the Chinese premier: