Commenting on the US-China joint statement on trade, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said “we are putting the trade war on hold.” And he added, “we have agreed to put the tariffs on hold while we try to execute the framework”, referring to the agreement.
Trump’s top economic adviser Larry Kudlow said they made “a lot of progress”, even surpassed their own expectation after the Beijing meeting. But it’s not at the stage of taking the threat of tariffs on USD 150B of products yet. And, it’s “too soon to lock that (USD 200B reduction in trade deficit) in” yet. Though he emphasized that “the direction here is the key”.
Kudlow also added that Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross will go to China and “looking into a number of areas where we’re going to have greatly significant increases,” including energy, liquefied natural gas, agriculture and manufacturing”.
