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US, China Made Progress in Trade Talks, 'Hard' Deadline Remains - WH

WASHINGTON (Sputnik) – The US and Chinese delegations have made a progress during talks in Washington this week, but tariffs on Chinese goods will increase if a trade deal is not reached by the 1 March deadline, the White House said in a statement after the conclusion of US-China trade talks.
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"While progress has been made, much work remains to be done," the statement said on Thursday. "Trump has reiterated that the 90-day process agreed to in Buenos Aires represents a hard deadline, and that United States tariffs will increase unless the United States and China reach a satisfactory outcome by March 1, 2019", the White House said Thursday.

US President Donald Trump noted Thursday that the United States and China could reach a trade deal by the March deadline. However, Trump hinted at a big, comprehensive trade deal or else he would postpone any agreement.

READ MORE: US Charges Against Huawei May ‘Toughen’ China’s Stance During Trade Negotiations

China and the United States have been engaged in a trade war since Trump announced last June that $50 billion worth of Chinese goods would be subject to 25 percent tariffs in a bid to fix the US-Chinese trade deficit. Since then, the two countries have exchanged several rounds of trade tariffs, levying duties on hundreds of billions of dollars of goods.

US Charges Against Huawei May ‘Toughen’ China’s Stance During Trade Negotiations
At the G20 summit in Argentina in December, Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping agreed to a 90-day truce in their tariff war to allow room for a new trade agreement. The 90-day period is set to end on 1 March.

Under a previous bilateral agreement reached in May 2018, Beijing pledged to buy more US goods and address US concerns over China’s alleged unfair trade practices. But that trade deal fell apart shortly afterward and failed to prevent Trump from escalating trade tensions by slapping steep tariffs on Chinese goods since last July.

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Meanwhile, in a series of recent tweets on the US-Sino trade talks, Trump stressed that the negotiations were going well, however, the US president said a final agreement would not be reached until he meets his Chinese counterpart President Xi Jinping in the near future.

According to the US-based media and the US government reports, Tariffs imposed earlier on aluminum, steel and a number of other exports have already hit the Chinese economy, where growth has fallen to 6.4 percent after years of double digit economic expansion.

READ MORE: Trump Says Trade Talks With China 'Going Very Well'

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