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China’s commerce ministry has described the tariff, agricultural, and aircraft deals agreed during this week’s visit by the United States (US) President Donald Trump as “preliminary” on Saturday.
After two days of talks with President Xi Jinping, Trump left Beijing on Friday. The talks featured pageantry and warm rhetoric but limited detail on concrete outcomes across trade and investment.
In a statement published on its website, the ministry said the two parties had agreed to establish an investment board and a trade board to negotiate reciprocal, product-specific tariff reductions, including broader cuts on unspecified goods, including agricultural products.
Regarding agriculture, Beijing said both sides will work to resolve non-tariff barriers and market access issues.
“The U.S. side will actively promote the resolution of China’s long-standing concerns regarding the automatic detention of dairy products and aquatic products, exports of bonsai in growing media to the United States, and recognising Shandong province as an area free of avian influenza,”
“The Chinese side will also actively promote the resolution of U.S. concerns regarding registration of beef facilities and exports of poultry meat from some U.S. states to China.” the ministry said.
The Chinese Ministry did not identify companies or provide details on volumes, values or timelines. However, Saturday’s statement marked China’s first public characterisation of the outcomes of trade talks held this week in Beijing and Seoul. This comes in the wake of questions about what Trump’s first state visit to China in nearly a decade has delivered.
The US President has said China agreed to buy 200 Boeing (BA.N) aircraft, but analysts have questioned the lack of a timeline. The commerce ministry confirmed arrangements on “Chinese purchases of U.S. aircraft and U.S. assurances on the supply of aircraft engines and parts to China”, without clarification.
It said discussions on the details were still ongoing and that the agreements would be concluded as soon as possible.
