On 14th February 2020, The United States of America and the People’s Republic of China signed an Economic and Trade agreement “Phase One” that became effective. As per the deal, China agreed to amplify the purchase of certain US services and products. Also, China’s commitment to avail at least $200 billion or more of US services and goods within two years- 2020 and 2021- on top of its buying in 2017.
Many experts remarked that it was not realistic for China to avail that much of U.S. goods in addition. Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, meeting that obligation become quite difficult. It affected Chines import demand to plunge.
Based on the current U.S. trade data, PIIE exclaimed on Wednesday that this year between January and November China has only brought $82billion of U.S. goods. This is more than just half of the 2020 target of $159.
The Washington D.C.-based think tank said, by breaking down the kind of goods, the data unfolds that the purchase of all the product categories in the last 11 months is shorter than the full year of commitment. The data showed that China is close to meeting the target amount of agricultural goods but least progress in buying U.S. energy products.
As per PIIE, they didn’t monitor China’s purchases of the U.S. services that are agreed under the deal as those data are not reported monthly basis. Under U.S. President Donald Trump- China ties have worsened a lot. These two countries clashed over technologies due to COVID-19 and China sanctioned a new national security law in Hong Kong.
President-elect Joe Biden exclaimed that after joining he will not immediately remove tariffs imposed by the Trump administration on China. He will first conduct a full review of the “phase one” trade deals and consult with the U.S. allies for developing a “Coherent strategy” on China.
