The Chinese government is insisting on a rollback of tariffs as being an inherent part of any phase one trade deal with the US administration, the Chinese newspaper Global Times said on Sunday, citing unnamed sources, as the uncertainty of whether the two nations can manage to come to terms remains in place.
"A US pledge to scrap tariffs scheduled for December 15 cannot replace the rollbacks of tariffs", the newspaper said in a tweet.
In November, the chief trade negotiators from China and the United States, Vice Premier Liu He, US Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer, and US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, had a phone conversation concerning the first phase of a new trade agreement.