U.S. Puts Tariffs Against China `On Hold,' Mnuchin Says

Bloomberg

Published May 20, 2018 23:46

Updated May 21, 2018 14:04

U.S. Puts Tariffs Against China `On Hold,' Mnuchin Says

(Bloomberg) -- The Trump administration has decided not to impose tariffs on Chinese products for now, after progress between the two nations on trade issue during two days of talks, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said.

“We’re putting the trade war on hold, right now, we have agreed to put the tariffs on hold while we try to executive the framework,” Mnuchin said on “Fox News Sunday.”

President Donald Trump has threatened to impose tariffs on up to $150 billion in Chinese imports to punish Beijing for violating American intellectual property. China has vowed to retaliate with tariffs on everything from soybeans to airplanes.

Mnuchin’s comments came after the two nations on Saturday released a joint statement in which China proposed to “significantly increase purchases” of U.S. goods.

But the statement released by the White House didn’t place a dollar figure on the increased purchases by China, or address a comment on Friday by Trump’s top economic adviser, suggesting Beijing had agreed to slash its annual trade surplus with the U.S. by $200 billion.

Vice Premier Liu He, a special envoy of China’s President Xi Jinping, told reporters in Washington that talks with Mnuchin, Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross and U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer ended with a pledge not to engage in a trade war, according to a Xinhua news agency report.

“We made very meaningful progress and we agreed on a framework. The framework includes their agreement to substantially reduce the trade deficit by increasing their purchases of goods,” Mnuchin said, adding that there the two sides have agreed to numerical targets but the he didn’t want to disclose them.