On January 15, 2020, President Trump and China’s Vice Premier Liu He signed “Phase One” of the “Economic and Trade Agreement Between the United States of America and the People’s Republic of China.” The Agreement provides for the purchase by China of $200 billion worth of agricultural (including beef and poultry), energy and manufactured goods over the next two years as well as provide market access for US financial services (like banks, insurance companies and credit agencies).
In addition, China made a number of commitments to improve intellectual property protection for US businesses and ease its forced technology transfer rules. The agreement sets new rules regarding currency manipulation. If China fails to carry out its commitments, the agreement has an enforcement mechanism that allows new duties against Chinese goods to be imposed.
For the present, most of the tariffs imposed by the US against Chinese goods will remain in place, while the 15% duty on $120 billion worth of goods will be reduced to 7.5%.
The 96 page text of the Agreement was released along with the following Fact Sheets:
