China commerce ministry pushes for progress in trade agreement with US
China commerce ministry expresses willingness to work with the United States (US) during European trading hours on Wednesday. The ministry added Beijing has fulfilled necessary obligations required to fulfil the first phase of the agreement.
Remarks
China is willing to work with the US to make good use of the China-US economic and trade consultation mechanism.
China has fulfilled obligations of China-US phase one agreement.
China hopes US to 'objectively' view implementation of agreement.
China will resolutely safeguard rights, interests.
China hopes US will not "shift responsibility", or "cause trouble".
Market reaction
There seems to be no immediate impact of comments from China Commerce Ministry on the Chinese Yuan (CNH) traded in the offshore market. As of writing, USD/CNH trades 0.16% lower to near 6.8666.
US-China Trade War FAQs
Generally speaking, a trade war is an economic conflict between two or more countries due to extreme protectionism on one end. It implies the creation of trade barriers, such as tariffs, which result in counter-barriers, escalating import costs, and hence the cost of living.
An economic conflict between the United States (US) and China began early in 2018, when President Donald Trump set trade barriers on China, claiming unfair commercial practices and intellectual property theft from the Asian giant. China took retaliatory action, imposing tariffs on multiple US goods, such as automobiles and soybeans. Tensions escalated until the two countries signed the US-China Phase One trade deal in January 2020. The agreement required structural reforms and other changes to China’s economic and trade regime and pretended to restore stability and trust between the two nations. However, the Coronavirus pandemic took the focus out of the conflict. Yet, it is worth mentioning that President Joe Biden, who took office after Trump, kept tariffs in place and even added some additional levies.
The return of Donald Trump to the White House as the 47th US President has sparked a fresh wave of tensions between the two countries. During the 2024 election campaign, Trump pledged to impose 60% tariffs on China once he returned to office, which he did on January 20, 2025. With Trump back, the US-China trade war is meant to resume where it was left, with tit-for-tat policies affecting the global economic landscape amid disruptions in global supply chains, resulting in a reduction in spending, particularly investment, and directly feeding into the Consumer Price Index inflation.