China praises Trump-Xi meeting, expresses confidence trade deal can be reached

China on Thursday praised the recent meeting between President Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping, expressing confidence that a trade deal can be reached within the established 90-day time frame laid out by the two countries.

“We are very confident in reaching an agreement [with the U.S.] within the next 90 days,” China’s commerce ministry spokesman Gao Feng said during a briefing, Reuters reported.

{mosads}Gao said both countries have been communicating “smoothly” since the Trump-Xi summit in Argentina last weekend.

Very strong signals being sent by China once they returned home from their long trip, including stops, from Argentina. Not to sound naive or anything, but I believe President Xi meant every word of what he said at our long and hopefully historic meeting. ALL subjects discussed!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 5, 2018

The U.S. and China have been engaged in an escalating trade war for months, slapping hundreds of billions of dollars in tariffs on one another’s exports. 

The Trump-Xi truce has delayed U.S. plans to increase tariffs to 25 percent from 10 percent on $200 billion of Chinese goods. 

Gao at the briefing said China hopes to remove all U.S. tariffs on Chinese goods.

“We will start with agricultural products, energy, automobiles to immediately implement the issues that the two sides have reached consensus,” Gao said, according to Reuters.

“Then, in the next 90 days, we will follow a clear timetable and roadmap to negotiate on issues such as intellectual property right protection, tech cooperation, market access and trade balance,” he added.