U.S.-China seals phase one deal in White house

Trade war is one step closer form ending. United States president, Donald Trump andChinese vice president, Liu He, signed the phase one of the trade deal between the U.S and China, a formality that is set to slow down the escalation of the trade war that has been going on for more than a year, including an increase of tariffs on some key fashion imports from China.

“This deal provides the apparel and footwear industry with very limited tariff relief following the biggest tariff increase since the Great Depression,” said Steve Lamar, president, and CEO of the American Apparel & Footwear Association. “All of our products that have been hurt by this trade war will continue to be hit; including 92 percent of the apparel, 53 percent of the footwear, 68 percent of the home textiles, and all of the travel goods and accessories that are imported from China, which is the primary source of these products.”

The National Retail Federation (NRF), the U.S. largest trade group for the industry, press for President Trump to do more regarding the tariff aspect   

“NRF strongly supports the administration’s efforts to address China’s unfair trading practices but we hope this is the first step toward eliminating all of the tariffs imposed over the past two years. The trade war won’t be over until all of these tariffs are gone. We are glad to see the phase one deal signed, and resolution of phase two can’t come soon enough” said NRF President and CEO Mathew Shay. 

The signing of the agreement took place at the White House, it foresees that China will be spending more than 200 billion dollars over the next few years on American goods, which will include sectors such as agriculture, and energy, and the implementation of strong intellectual property protections for American companies, which refers mostly to Chinese counterfeits which American have been complaining about, underlined president Trump.

China agrees to take action regarding the “protection of American ideas, trade secrets, patents, and trademarks.”

Under the said deal, China agrees to take action regarding the “protection of American ideas, trade secrets, patents, and trademarks,” said the U.S President. Stronger regulations will be required in China regarding its border enforcement to stop counterfeits before they ship to the U.S.

Part one of the deal was part of a plan that the U.S has announced last August, which imposed additional duties of 300 billion dollars on some Chinese goods. The discussion of Phase two could go until after the presidential election in November.

Tariffs have been a great burden for suppliers in China, where exports were down by 25%, or 35 billion dollars, in the first half of 2019, according to a U.N report in November. Wall Street investors were rather glad to see indications that the trade war was indeed tranquilizing.