President Donald Trump has extended the tariff ceasefire with China by another 90 days.
Hours before the trade truce between the nations was due to expire, a White House official told CNBC that the president had signed an executive order renewing the terms of a May deal brokered by trade officials in Geneva for three more months.
The agreement established 30-percent tariffs on China-originating imports into the United States and 10-percent duties on U.S. exports to the country, replacing much higher, triple-digit bilateral duties threatened by both Beijing and Washington in April.
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Earlier in the day, the president played coy about the status of the deal, telling reporters, “We’ll see what happens.” Trump characterized his relationship with Chinese President Xi Jinping as “very good.”
China’s Foreign Ministry likewise expressed optimism about a deal on Monday morning. Spokesperson Lin Jian told reporters that a recent talk between the heads of state had gone well.
“We hope the U.S. will work with China to implement the important common understandings reached by the two presidents during the phone call, make good use of the economic and trade consultation mechanism, and work for positive outcomes on the basis of equality, respect, and mutual benefit,” he said.
Separately, chipmakers Nvidia and AMD agreed to pay the American government 15 percent of their revenues from sales to China as a means of securing export licenses for Nvidia’s H20 chip and AMD’s MI308 chip. The president said previously that sales of the chips to China should be blocked due to national security concerns.
