Trump Says China Agreed To Open Market To The US, But Final Trade Deal Still in Progress

U.S. President Donald Trump said on Monday that China has agreed to open up its markets to trade with the U.S., but the deal is yet to be finalized. 

“The biggest thing we’re discussing is opening up China, and they’ve agreed to do that, but it’s going to take a while to paper it. It’s not the easiest thing to paper,” he said during a press conference.

He said the two sides had already agreed to it over the weekend in Geneva before China refused to sign the deal at the last minute.

“If we do get it, I think it’s maybe the most important thing to happen,” he stated.

Trump added that he has plans to speak with Chinese President Xi Jinping at the end of the week. “We have some other things we’re doing,” he said.

Trump stated that the talks in Geneva were “very friendly” and the relationship was “very good.” 

“We’re not looking to hurt China – China was being hurt very badly, they were closing up factories, and they were having a lot of unrest,” he said.

Trump explained that while there’s a 90-day pause on tariffs between the U.S. and China, negotiations are continuing on larger structural issues, and the imperative remains to protect the U.S.’s necessities, like the pharmaceutical, steel, and semiconductor industries. 

“No tariffs may be imposed on pharmaceuticals because we want to bring the pharmaceutical businesses back to the U.S. And, they’re already starting to come back on based on tariffs,” Trump said.

He added that China has agreed to remove all non-monetary barriers. 

The U.S. stock market was trending higher after easing trade tensions between the U.S. and China. The SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust (SPY) was up over 2.7% in morning trade on Monday, the Invesco QQQ Trust (QQQ), which tracks the Nasdaq 100, was 3.3% higher, and the SPDR Dow Jones Industrial Average ETF (DIA) rose 2.3% on Monday.

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