China says agrees with US to implement 'all' existing trade agreements

BEIJING: China and the United States agreed to continue implementing “all” agreements previously reached and to establish councils for trade and investment, Beijing’s top diplomat said in a statement on Friday.

It comes after a two-day summit between Chinese President Xi Jinping and his US counterpart Donald Trump discussed a spate of thorny issues dividing the world’s two largest economies from trade to the Middle East, as they met in Beijing where the US leader was feted with a temple tour and tea.

Trump touted “fantastic trade deals”, announcing in interviews Chinese purchases of American soybeans and jets, but there have been no official announcements or details from either side.

After Trump’s departure from China, Xi accepted an invitation from his US counterpart on Friday to visit the United States in autumn.

“The delegations of the two countries reached overall positive results, including continuing to implement all consensus reached in previous consultations (and) agreeing to establish a trade council and an investment council,” Wang Yi said, according to a statement from the Chinese foreign ministry.

US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said in an interview with CNBC on Thursday the countries were in talks to establish a bilateral “board of trade” and “board of investment”.

The two countries also agreed to “address each other’s concerns regarding market access for agricultural products and promote expanding two-way trade within a framework of reciprocal tariff reductions”, Wang said.

China and the US are in the middle of a year-long trade truce reached in October, where both sides agreed to slash tariffs on each other’s goods that had exceeded 100 %.