Beijing ready to discuss partial trade deal with Washington & increase agricultural purchases - reports

With trade talks between the world’s two largest economies, the US and China, about to begin on Thursday, media reports suggest that Beijing is ready to negotiate a partial trade deal.

A possible agreement may be discussed so long as no more tariffs are imposed by the Trump administration (including planned levies due this month and in December), according to Bloomberg. Citing an official with direct knowledge of the negotiations, it reports that Beijing would offer non-core concessions, such as purchases of agricultural products, in return, but would not budge on major sticking points between the two sides.

The source said negotiators were not optimistic about securing a broad agreement that would fully end the trade conflict.

The Financial Times reports that officials in China are offering to increase annual purchases of US agricultural products by $10 billion a year in order to reach a partial deal.

″Vice Premier Liu He is coming with real offers, it’s not an empty visit,” an unnamed source told FT. “The Chinese are ready to de-escalate.”

Washington and Beijing have been embroiled in a trade conflict for more than a year. They are currently trying to hammer out a deal, but the last time they came close to an agreement, it was called off at the last minute and resulted in further higher tit-for-tat tariffs.

The two countries are now set for high-level trade negotiations in Washington on Thursday. Trump said tariffs on Chinese imports will be hiked on October 15 if no progress is made in the bilateral trade talks.

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