US, China Said To Both Be Talking About Lifting Some Sanctions

Ratcheting back tariffs on Chinese goods to calm markets and give China an incentive to make more-substantial concessions in trade negotiations with the U.S. is being advocated by Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin, according to the Wall Street Journal (WSJ), but the effort is getting pushback from U.S. Trade Representative Robert LIghthizer. The Treasury Department told the WSJ said that the positions "are all at the discussion stage" and neither Mnuchin nor Lighthizer have made any recommendations "on tariffs or other parts of the negotiations with China," with a spokesman for USTR saying the agency concurred with the Treasury statement. However, sources indicate that China, too, is discussing the potential of reducing tariffs on imports of U.S. goods. Also surfacing in the mix is a WSJ report that the two sides discussed reopening China's market to U.S. chicken exports. All indications from sources are that USTR, not Treasury remains the key player in the talks and that Lighthizer has not supported reducing tariffs on China at this stage. Further, contacts say President Trump will have the final say in what happens relative to the China negotiations and he has not shown signs of being willing to remove tariffs at this point. But the fact that both sides are talking about reducing tariffs is further evidence that both President Trump to Chinese President Xi Jinping want an agreement between the two countries.