U.S. President Donald Trump announced a delay on Sunday night of his intention to increase tariffs on Chinese goods imported into the U.S.
Trump announced the delay via Twitter, citing “substantial progress” in trade talks between Washington and Beijing. Trump had been threatening to increase tariffs from 10% to 25% on $200 billion worth of Chinese imports.
The tweets came following several days of negotiations in Washington led by U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer and China Vice Premier Liu He. Lighthizer and Liu extended talks through the weekend.
Trump has hinted in recent days that the increase might be delayed if negotiators made good progress. “It’s not a big surprise, all the signs last week were that they are making enough progress to warrant a delay but not enough progress to make a final deal,” says Julian Evans-Pritchard, senior China economist at Capital Economics told TIME.
Although details of the agreements made have not been released, Trump told White House reporters on Friday that a deal had been made on currency and currency manipulation.
“It seems to me that they’re still ironing out a lot of the issues and haven’t reached an agreement on larger structural issues and how all of this will be enforced,” says Evans-Pritchard
Trump did not set a new deadline for increased tariffs. “Assuming both sides make additional progress, we will be planning a Summit for President Xi and myself, at Mar-a-Lago, to conclude an agreement,” Trump tweeted.
The trade war has had an impact on both Chinese and U.S. economies, and has caused turmoil in global stock markets.
