Talks between Bob Lighthizer, Steve Mnuchin and Liu He went swimmingly on Friday.
Or at least that’s what the US side is keen to project.
Conversations are set to continue and the two sides are close to finalizing some sections of a trade deal after headway was made in the call, the US says. The offshore yuan extended gains on the headlines.
“Discussions will go on continuously at the deputy level, and the principals will have another call in the near future”, a statement reads.
Earlier, sources said Beijing was seeking tariff relief in exchange for facilitating the “Phase One” deal agreed earlier this month.
Read more: Will Trump Give Up His Leverage Over Jerome Powell To Secure A Deal With Xi?
It’s likely that the market will take the positive rhetoric from the US side as an indication that the White House is at least considering lifting the tariffs imposed on September 1 and taking the planned December escalation off the table.
Meanwhile, Peter Navarro told Fox Business that today’s call between the principals (and Peter is not a principal) was “excellent”.
“[We] seem to be on the glide path to a possible signing of phase one of a trade deal in Chile next month”, he said. “So far, all systems are go on that”.
That’s a departure from his usual hawkish rhetoric.
“Ron Vara” wasn’t immediately available for comment.
Yup seems likely… I mean the Pence speech obviously is not going to cause any issues.
Well as it appears we were hell bent on a trade war and …..oh well I guess we just plain changed our mind… First thing that comes mind is In what way are we now (both sides ) better off than we were before we started all this…I guess all the imbalances have miraculously disappeared …. except of course cheap interest rates and inflated equity prices…..Sounds like a Bullish event ….
Prediction: Fed meeting hints at end of “easing cycle” or some hawkish commentary. Trade war gets escalated (again) within 24-48 hours.