US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said yesterday that the texts of phase one US-China trade agreement are being written by both teams. The administration’s “objective” was to ready the agreement to be signed by both Presidents at the APEC summit in Chile on November 16-17.
Mnuchin added the phase one agreement would include a “quite broad” chapter regarding protection of American intellectual property rights in China. The would also be some coverages on structural agricultural issues and currencies. Meanwhile, some of the issues regarding forced technology transfer would be addressed in the second phase of negotiations.
On the US side, Mnuchin said, “we were all focused on was the October tariffs”. And, “we have not gone to the president with any recommendation or any decision” regarding the tranche of tariffs scheduled for December 15.
