The limited trade deal that the Trump administration and Beijing announced Friday means Americans will avoid a holiday tax increase on imported toys, clothing and smartphones. U.S. farmers can sell more soybeans and pork to China. And American companies should face less pressure to hand over trade secrets to Beijing.

But what the administration gained from the so-called Phase 1 deal that President Donald Trump celebrated falls well short of the demands the president issued when he launched a trade war against Beijing 17 months ago. Further rounds of negotiations will be required to achieve a more significant agreement.

Still, Friday's preliminary agreement managed to at least defuse a conflict that had put investors on edge and slowed economic growth entering an election year in which Trump plans to campaign, at least in part, on America's prosperity.

Under the agreement, the Trump administration dropped its plan to impose new tariffs on $160 billion of Chinese imports beginning Sunday — a tax that would have likely led to higher prices on many consumer goods. The administration also agreed to reduce its existing import taxes on about $112 billion in Chinese goods from 15% to 7.5%.

In return, U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer told reporters, China agreed to buy $40 billion a year in U.S. farm products over two years, even though U.S. agricultural exports to China have never topped $26 billion a year. In addition, Beijing committed to ending a long-standing practice of pressuring companies to hand over their technology as a condition of gaining access to the Chinese market.

Lighthizer said China also agreed to lift certain barriers to its market for such products as beef, poultry, seafood, pet food and animal feed.

In all, the U.S. expects a $200 billion boost in exports over two years as a result of the deal.

 "We expect the trade deficit to go down for sure," Lighthizer said, adding that the agreement will likely be signed the first week in January and take effect 30 days later.

``Everything is written," he said. "Everything is completely finished."

Yet the administration released no detailed paperwork on the agreement. And it said the text was still being translated between Chinese and English. In the past, the two sides had appeared to be close to firm agreements only to see negotiations fall apart.

At the same time, the Phase 1 agreement leaves some major issues unresolved, notably complaints that Beijing unfairly subsidizes its own companies to give them a competitive edge in world markets.

Many trade analysts said the agreement amounted to a mixed bag.

"This deal should go a long way in reversing the downward spiral in bilateral trade relations and increasing certainty for U.S. businesses," said Wendy Cutler, a former U.S. trade negotiator who is now vice president at the Asia Society Policy Institute.

 

But, she cautioned, ``it's unclear on how far the Phase 1 agreement goes in addressing the key structural issues that brought the U.S. to the negotiating table 17 months ago.''

Other analysts were harsher.

"With only limited concessions, China has been able to preserve its mercantilist economic system and continue its discriminatory industrial policies at the expense of China's trading partners and the global economy," said Scott Kennedy, a China specialist at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

 "Trump could reverse course and renew tariffs. But Beijing has bought itself a likely respite from the daily uncertainty for at least a few months and perhaps for the remainder of Trump's current term."

Trump had first announced a Phase 1 deal back on Oct. 11, but negotiations continued for two more months. The president, who announced the latest agreement via Twitter, said that work on a follow-up Phase 2 agreement would begin immediately.

His announcement came minutes after the House Judiciary Committee approved impeachment charges of abuse of power and obstruction of Congress, leading the White House to argue that the president "never stops working and continues to make successful deals that benefit this country."

In Beijing, officials said at a briefing that if the Trump administration reduces its tariffs, China will lower its trade penalties on American goods and also scrap plans for new tariffs Sunday.

The world's two biggest economies are battling over the industries of the future and the way China does business — an unorthodox mix of capitalism and state control.

The administration accuses China of cheating in its drive to develop such advanced technologies as driver-less cars and artificial intelligence. The administration alleges — and independent analysts generally agree — that China steals technology, forces foreign companies to hand over trade secrets, unfairly subsidizes its own firms and throws up bureaucratic hurdles for foreign rivals.

Beijing rejects the accusations and contends that Washington is simply trying to suppress a rising competitor in international trade.

Since July 2018, the Trump administration has imposed a series of trade sanctions on China, sometimes changing or delaying planned tariff rates.

Friday's announcement means the U.S. will still continue to impose 25% import taxes on $250 billion in Chinese goods and will halve the tariffs on a separate $112 billion to 7.5%. It will drop plans to target an additional $160 billion. That step would have extended the tariffs to just about everything China sells the United States and would have hit consumer items such as toys and smartphones that have so far largely been spared.

Beijing has retaliated by taxing $120 billion in U.S. exports, including soybeans and other farm products that are vital to many of Trump's supporters in rural America.

Rob Atkinson, president of the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation, said "the agreement represents progress'' but said "the United States must still comprehensively address China's rampant innovation mercantilist practices.''

Mary Lovely, a trade economist at the Peterson Institute for International Economics, said it''s unlikely that Friday's deal delivers enough benefits for the U.S. to outweigh the costs of the trade fight so far.

U.S. farmers lost billions of dollars in income, companies paid billions in tariffs and in many cases shifted their supply chains, and consumers saw some prices increase.

"Many of us are highly skeptical that the agreement will be enough to outweigh these other costs," Lovely said. "The U.S. didn't move the needle very much."

Still, the agreement should help smooth some of the uncertainty surrounding global trade, Lovely said.

"We have a cease-fire, we have some roll back, that is very significant," she said. "We were kind of on a brink here, and we saw the negotiators pull us back."

Lighthizer said the Phase 1 agreement addressed one of the key U.S. concerns: Ensuring that a deal can be enforced. The Trump administration and other critics say China has a long history of violating its promises. Friday's deal establishes a dispute resolution process. If a complaint isn't resolved, the aggrieved party can impose sanctions, including tariffs.

"A skeptic would say, 'We'll see,'" Lighthizer said. "And that's probably a wise position to take. But our expectation is that they'll keep their obligations. And in any event, they're enforceable.''

Repeated rounds of negotiations had failed to achieve a substantive deal. The prolonged uncertainty over Trump's trade policies curtailed U.S. business investment and likely held back economic growth. Many corporations have slowed or suspended investment plans until they know when, how or even whether the trade standoff will end.

A far-reaching agreement on China's technology policies will likely prove difficult. It would require Beijing to scale back its drive to become a global powerhouse in industrial high technology, something it sees as a path to prosperity and international influence.

"This deal would amount to a modest de-escalation of trade hostilities but hardly resolves the fundamental trade and economic tensions that are dampening business sentiment and investment in both countries," said Eswar Prasad, an economist at Cornell University and former head of the International Monetary Fund's China division.

Efforts to acquire foreign technology are a theme that runs through Chinese law and government. Security researchers have asserted that Beijing operates a network of research institutes and business parks to turn stolen foreign technology into commercial products.

The Trump administration has been seeking a way to enforce any significant trade agreement with China, reflecting its contention that Beijing has violated past promises. One way to do is to retain some tariffs as leverage.

The Asian Development Bank (ADB) said on Friday that it has approved a 200 million U.S. dollars loan to help the Philippine government prepare and implement major infrastructure projects under its flagship "Build, Build, Build" development program.

The Manila-based bank said the loan, as additional financing to the ongoing Infrastructure Preparation and Innovation Facility (IPIF), will support the preparation of several transformative projects, including the detailed engineering design of an interlink bridge that connects the provinces of Bataan and Cavite and the Metro Rail Transit Line 4.

It will also provide project implementation and preparation support for staff at the country's Department of Transportation and the Department of Public Works and Highways, so they can effectively and efficiently manage complex infrastructure projects, the bank added.

"Usually, major infrastructure projects take at least five years to prepare. But the government's 'Build, Build, Build' program has significantly shortened this preparation period, and the IPIF support is helping with this," said ADB Country Director for the Philippines Kelly Bird.

"From a historical perspective, the government's rollout of its 'Build, Build, Build' program has been incredibly successful, with public spending on infrastructure at an all-time high," Bird added.

The program, a main focus of the Duterte administration, aims to boost long-term economic growth by increasing public infrastructure investments to 7.0 percent of gross domestic product by 2022.

According to ADB, public spending on infrastructure has been on an uptrend in the Philippines, reaching over 5.0 percent in 2018, up from around 3.0 percent in 2015 before President Rodrigo Duterte assumed office in June 2016.

IPIF was initially set up with a 100 million U.S. dollars loan approved by ADB in 2017 to help the government tap into international best practices in preparing flagship infrastructure projects, including railways, roads, bridges, and flood protection facilities.

It also provided government officials access to innovative technologies in preparing technically complex projects, such as long-span bridges, the bank said.

The Standard Bank of South Africa launched UnionPay card on Thursday to local account holders for more convenience in payment in China.

The card is available in both virtual and physical form on the bank's Shyft app. The app allows pre-loaded South African rands to be exchanged into multiple currencies and then loaded into a physical UnionPay card.

Zhang Luping, general manager of the UnionPay International Africa branch, said UnionPay is excited to work with Standard Bank, which is the first African bank to receive the license to issue UnionPay card in the country.

"With the UnionPay card, transacting in China becomes both easier and safer for South African tourists and visitors on business," said Ethel Nyembe, head of card issuance at Standard Bank.

"They can go about their activities and purchase goods from suppliers, for example, in a cashless manner, reducing some of the previous risks involved," she said.

Nyembe said the UnionPay card is accepted through most mobile payment apps, which are hugely popular in China.

The UnionPay global acceptance network has expanded to 177 countries and regions so far, covering over 56 million merchants and over 4.6 million ATMs. About 8 billion UnionPay cards have been issued in 58 countries and regions with over 130 million being used outside the Chinese mainland.

Expectations for a U.S.-Chinese trade truce to avert an American tariff hike rose Friday, though Beijing said any settlement to their costly, long-running conflict must be "mutually beneficial."

A senior administration official said an announcement regarding China would take place Friday. The official spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss internal planning.

A "deal is close,'' said Myron Brilliant, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce's head of international affairs, who was briefed by both sides.

Brilliant said the Trump administration agreed to suspend a planned tariff increase on $160 billion of Chinese imports Sunday and to reduce existing tariffs, though it wasn't clear by how much.

In return, Beijing would buy more U.S. farm products, increase Americans companies' access to the Chinese market and tighten protection for intellectual property rights.

The deal awaits final approval from President Donald Trump. Trump did not comment to reporters on the talks late Thursday when returning to the White House.

Trump took to Twitter early Thursday to declare: "Getting VERY close to a BIG DEAL with China. They want it, and so do we!"

On Friday, a Chinese foreign ministry spokeswoman said a negotiated settlement is the "expectation of the international community" but gave no confirmation of an agreement or details on the status of talks.

"Negotiations must be based on the principles of equality and mutual respect," said the spokeswoman, Hua Chunying, repeating Beijing's long-held position. "The deal must be mutually beneficial, a win-win."

Trump's comments triggered a rally on Wall Street that carried over to Asian trading.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average surged 220 points, or 0.8% on Thursday. In Friday trading, Japan's Nikkei 225 index jumped 2.6% while the Shanghai Composite index advanced 1.5%.

Beijing has threatened to retaliate if Sunday's tariff hike goes ahead.

The two sides are negotiating an interim "Phase 1" agreement to help resolve their sprawling trade dispute. Still, the truce appears to leave unsettled the toughest and most complex issues that have divided the two sides.

Three Democratic senators — Minority Leader Charles Schumer of New York, Ron Wyden of Oregon and Sherrod Brown of Ohio — sent a letter to the White House on Thursday, urging Trump to "stand firm'' in the negotiations with China. They called on the president to hold out for "commitments from the Chinese government to enact substantive, enforceable and permanent structural reform.''

The administration accuses Beijing of cheating in its drive to develop advanced technologies as driver-less cars and artificial intelligence.

The administration alleges — and independent analysts generally agree — that China steals technology, forces foreign companies to hand over trade secrets, unfairly subsidizes its own firms and throws up bureaucratic hurdles for foreign rivals.

Beijing rejects the accusations and contends that Washington is simply trying to suppress a rising competitor in international trade.

Despite the plans for an announcement, it's not a done deal, noted Jeffrey Halley of Oanda.

"After such an interminable wait and having being led to water before, I would like to see something official in writing officially. Further to that point, although the in-principle agreement may have been agreed, the legally binding text has yet to be drawn up," he said.

Since July 2018, the Trump administration has imposed import taxes on $360 billion in Chinese products. Beijing has retaliated by taxing $120 billion in U.S. exports, including soybeans and other farm products that are vital to many of Trump's supporters in rural America.

On Sunday, the administration was set to start taxing an additional $160 billion in Chinese imports, a move that would extend the sanctions to just about everything China ships to the United States.

Repeated rounds of negotiations had failed to achieve even a preliminary agreement. The prolonged uncertainty over Trump's trade policies has curtailed U.S. business investment and likely held back economic growth. Many corporations have slowed or suspended investment plans until they know when, how or even whether the trade standoff will end.

A far-reaching agreement on China's technology policies will likely prove difficult. It would require Beijing to scale back its drive to become a global powerhouse in industrial high technology, something it sees as a path to prosperity and international influence.

Efforts to acquire foreign technology are a theme that runs through Chinese law and government. Security researchers have asserted that Beijing operates a network of research institutes and business parks to turn stolen foreign technology into commercial products.

The Trump administration has been seeking a way to enforce any significant trade agreement with China, reflecting its contention that Beijing has violated past promises. One way to do is to retain some tariffs as leverage.

A reception was hosted at the Baridhara residence of Enayetullah Khan, Honorary Consul of Romania in Bangladesh and Editor-in-Chief of UNB and Dhaka Courier, on Wednesday, marking the Romanian National Day.

Academics, politicians, diplomats, business leaders, city elite and former civil and defence officials attended the reception.