The U.S. and China have reached agreements covering a subset of nonsensitive goods that could trade on more favorable terms, U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer said. The Trump administration plans to release more details Monday, though Greer did not specify which products, tariff changes, or timing.
U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer said Friday the U.S. and China have reached agreements covering a subset of goods the two countries can trade on more favorable terms. The list includes U.S. agricultural products and medical devices along with Chinese consumer goods considered nonsensitive.
According to Greer, "We've actually reached agreement with the Chinese on a number of these things", he said on CNBC's Squawk Box.
More details expected Monday
Greer said the administration plans to release a lot more details Monday about what the two sides have accomplished in talks over the past several weeks. He did not say Friday which products are covered, how tariffs on those goods could change, or when new terms would take effect.
The goal, he said, is to carve out trade areas that could remain insulated from future tariff measures or broader trade disputes. Negotiations run through the new U.S.-China Board of Trade mechanism and focus on pure trade issues rather than national security restrictions on advanced technology. Greer said those export controls are national security issues and are kept off the table.
Truce extended as compliance check
Trump and Xi Jinping announced the Board of Trade after meeting in Beijing in May, aiming to manage trade in nonsensitive products. Washington and Beijing have also agreed to extend their broader trade truce by two months, giving both sides more time to negotiate long-standing economic disputes.
Greer said the U.S. views those two months as compliance periods to assess whether China is following through on earlier commitments, including purchases of U.S. soybeans and other agricultural products and access to rare earths needed by American manufacturers. Whenever these compliance periods roll over, he said, it becomes a time to reassess whether to continue the current period of relative economic peace with China.
Trade flows keep shifting
Tariffs have altered U.S. trade flows more broadly. Greer said Friday the U.S. goods trade deficit with China has fallen nearly 40%, while acknowledging some trade has shifted to other countries as companies adjust their supply chains. He pointed to North America as a beneficiary of that shift, saying market actors are responding to new terms of trade.
The comments followed Trump's meeting with Xi at the White House on Thursday, after which Beijing released a more detailed public account of the talks than Washington had at the time.
Source: CNBC
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