President Trump is meeting with the wolverines to discuss the current status of terms for a “Phase One” U.S-China trade deal. Additionally POTUS tweeted a deal was close:
As we have noted the general objective from President Trump on a “Phase One” deal is a $50 billion agriculture purchase from China that would allow the U.S. to discontinue the supplemental bridge payments to farmers using tariff income. Details of this possible deal are unknown, but look for a delay in the next round of the December 15th tariffs to secure the Ag purchase. President Trump will want a written purchase contract.
The financial pundits, most beholden to the needs of the Wall Street multinationals, are overestimating the scale and scope of issues likely resolved within “phase one”. There is not likely to be resolution to the bigger issues in the U.S-China trade conflict.
Bloomberg reported: “U.S. negotiators offered to reduce tariffs on about $375 billion in Chinese goods by 50% across the board and suspend tariffs on $160 billion in goods scheduled to go into effect on Sunday.”
I would advise to take the Bloomberg report with a grain of salt; their Wall Street-centric voice generally tries to push narrative negotiations to the benefit of multinationals.
Instead, the Trump big picture common sense business approach is: the value of tariff reduction will be directly related to the value of a WRITTEN CONTRACT China purchase.
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