WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. President Joe Biden on Wednesday said it was too soon to make commitments on lifting U.S. tariffs on Chinese goods, but his chief trade negotiator Katherine Tai was working on the issue.
“I’d like to be able to be in a position where I could say they’re meeting their commitments, or more of their commitments, and be able to lift some of them, but we’re not there yet,” Biden said, referring to China’s commitments under a Phase 1 trade deal signed by his predecessor Donald Trump.
China has fallen far short of its pledge under the two-year trade agreement to buy $200 billion in additional U.S. goods and services by the end of 2021, and it remains unclear how the shortfall will be addressed.
(Reporting by Alexandra Alper; writing by Andrea Shalal; editing by Chris Reese)
