US and China are said to have agreed on first agreement

The trade conflict between the US and China seems to be defused: A few days before the entry into force of new tariffs on Chinese consumer goods, Washington and Beijing are said to have basically agreed on a first agreement. The so-called Phase One Agreement will cover the topics of intellectual property protection, financial services, monetary issues and agricultural products.

As the news agency Bloomberg reports, US tariffs, which should come into effect on the weekend, could be suspended. Existing tariffs on imports from China are to be reduced by 50 percent. Only the approval of US President Donald Trump is according to the reports still pending.

Trump and his advisers are said to have met at 20.30 German time to discuss the way forward. Thereafter, an opinion of the White House is expected.

Agreement before the 15th of December

The timing of the talks between China and the US should not be a coincidence. Until December 15, the US has time to suspend the new tariffs. Otherwise, Beijing threatened to call for tougher counter-sanctions and suspend talks between the two nations - until after the US presidential election in November 2020.

The reports follow a tweet from Trump, showing optimism about a first deal with China. "Come very close to a big deal with China, they want it - and so do we," Trump wrote. Even the tweet caused a boom in the financial markets, the stock index Standard & Poor's 500 even jumped to a record high.

For more than one and a half years, the US and China impose punitive tariffs on each other. The trade war had slowed global growth and dampened corporate profits and investment around the world. Only in October had there been a first truce between the two nations.