Chinese Commerce Minister, Zhong Shan has described recent talks with the US as “very exhausting “ and “very difficult”.
It has been rumoured that the two sides are getting close to an agreement on ending the trade war that commenced in July 2018.
The progress made in talks has prompted the Trump Administration to drop the idea of increasing the tariff rate on $200bn worth of Chinese goods to 25%.
Currency Pair | % Change in 1 month | Difference on £200,000 | |
---|---|---|---|
![]() | ![]() | 4.37% | $11,160 |
There could be a deal signed by Chinese President Xi Jinping and US President Donald Trump by the end of the month during a planned meeting in Florida.
“I’d say it’s hard and difficult because the two countries have huge differences in their institutions, cultures and stages of development. The two sides had to make extra efforts to reach consensus, so it was very difficult, it is very hard,” Zhong said.
“The negotiations was also exhausting because the time available for negotiation was very limited – we were originally scheduled for two days and then the talks were extended for another two days, but the time was still very limited. Our team worked overtime and overnight.” He added.
Zhong had accompanied Chief Trade Negotiator Liu He to Washington for the last round of talks in February and they described the talks as fruitful and the two sides had made substantial progress.
The office of US trade representative confirmed during last week that the scheduled tariff increase on Chinese goods would be suspended until further notice.
If a deal is reached this could result in US dollar strength.
The release of Non-Farm Payroll data takes place on the first Friday of each month and is historically very hard to predict. The release can create short term market movement.
It represents new jobs created during the previous month, minus the agricultural sector.