The “phase one” agreement that calls for China to purchase vast amounts of U.S. farm exports should be ready for signature by mid-November, regardless of the cancellation of the summit meeting where President Trump and President Xi Jinping were expected to sign it, said the White House on Wednesday. Chile withdrew as host of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit, known as APEC, because of anti-government unrest.
“We’re awaiting potential information regarding another location,” said a White House spokesman. “We look forward to finalizing Phase One of the historic trade deal with China within the same time frame, and when we have an announcement, we’ll let you know.”
The APEC meeting had been scheduled for Nov. 15-17 in Santiago.
After the latest round of Sino-U.S. trade negotiations, Trump said China would buy $40 billion to $50 billion worth of U.S. ag products over a two-year period. Details of the purchases are unclear, as is the timeline. Before the trade war, China bought roughly $21 billion a year worth of U.S. farm exports. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin told Reuters that China would “scale up” to purchases that total $40 billion to $50 billion annually. “This is built on a bottom-up basis of both what we think we can deliver and what they think they need,” he said on the sidelines of a conference in Saudi Arabia.