After weeks of tensions, China and the United States have reached a ceasefire.

Both sides this weekend said they had agreed to not impose new tariffs on one another while talks continue, after reaching an initial agreement on trade.

In a joint statement on Saturday, the countries said China would "significantly increase" purchases of US goods and services to reduce their trade imbalance. This was a top demand of the Trump administration during two days of trade talks in Washington with Chinese officials.

"We're putting the trade war on hold," US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin told "Fox News Sunday. "We have agreed to put the tariffs on hold while we try to execute the framework."

The remarks echoed those by China Vice Premier Liu He, the top economic adviser to Chinese President Xi Jinping. He said the two sides have pledged not to engage in a trade war, according to state-run news agency Xinhua.

Mnuchin said the countries have agreed on a trade framework — though there aren't many details. The joint announcement released Saturday did not put a dollar amount on China's commitment to increase purchases.

The pledge for more cooperation comes as the US and China, the world's two largest economies, have threatened tens of billions of dollars in tariffs that could lead to a trade war.

Both sides specifically agreed to "meaningful increases" in US agriculture and energy exports, according to the statement. The US intends to send a team to China to hammer out the details. Mnuchin said Sunday on Fox News that Trump can "put the tariffs back on" if China doesn't follow through with its commitments.

US Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer reiterated that threat in a statement warning that major issues between the two sides remain unresolved.

"Getting China to open its market to more U.S. exports is significant, but the far more important issues revolve around forced technology transfers, cyber theft and the protection of our innovation," he said. "As this process continues, the United States may use all of its legal tools to protect our technology through tariffs, investment restrictions and export regulations."

Related: Did China make a $200 billion trade offer to the US? Beijing says no

US officials on Thursday told CNN that Beijing had proposed boosting Chinese purchases of American goods by around $200 billion. But at a regular news briefing in Beijing on Friday, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Lu Kang denied such an offer had been made.

The statement also did not mention ZTE, the Chinese tech giant that has recently been at the center of the trade spat.

Last Sunday, in a move that surprised many, the president tweeted that he working with Chinese President Xi Jinping to help Chinese state-controlled phone and telecom equipment maker ZTE (ZTCOF) get back into business, adding the "Commerce Department has been instructed to get it done!"

ZTE halted its main operations after the Trump administration banned American companies from selling it vital product components. The US said that ZTE had lied to American officials about punishing employees who violated US sanctions against North Korea and Iran.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, in a statement on Saturday, criticized the joint announcement for seeming to keep lighter penalties for ZTE on the table.

"If the administration capitulates on ZTE and allows it to continue to exist, even if they are fined — they've been fined once already — that will signal to President Xi that we are weak negotiators," Schumer said.

Related: Trump talks trade with China as project linked to his company gets Chinese business

Schumer also protested what he said was a lack of concrete steps needed to protect US intellectual property.

In March, Trump proposed tariffs on $50 billion worth of Chinese exports following a months-long investigation into IP theft, calling it a "tremendous" problem. China, in turn, pledged retaliatory tariffs on US items like planes, cars and soybeans. Trump then raised the possibility of an additional round of tariffs worth $100 billion.

China and the United States said in Saturday's statement only that the two countries would "strengthen cooperation" on intellectual property protections, and that China "will advance relevant amendments to its laws and regulations in this area."

Scott Kennedy, an expert on the Chinese economy at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, said the joint statement is "too vague to be binding on its own."

"It commits neither side to any specific action, either to expand trade and investment, constrain industrial policy or not adopt penalties," he said.

-- CNN's Sarah Westwood and Yuli Yang contributed to this report.</s>The Trump administration won’t impose tariffs on Chinese products for now, after the two nations made progress on trade issues during two days of talks, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said.

“We’re putting the trade war on hold. So right now, we have agreed to put the tariffs on hold while we try to execute the framework,” Mnuchin said on “Fox News Sunday.”

President Donald Trump has threatened to impose tariffs on as much as $150 billion in Chinese imports to punish Beijing for allegedly violating American intellectual property and unfair trade practices. China vowed to retaliate with tariffs on everything from soybeans to airplanes.

Mnuchin’s remarks will be a relief to investors, who had feared the world’s two biggest economies were on the brink of an all-out trade conflict. The International Monetary Fund has warned that a global trade war would undermine the broadest global upswing in years.

Still, when asked on CBS’s “Face the Nation” Sunday whether Trump has taken the threat of tariffs off the table, Larry Kudlow, Trump’s top economic adviser, said, “I don’t think we’re at that stage yet.”

“Tariffs are part of any negotiation, and tariffs maybe have to be part of any enforcement,” Kudlow said. “You cannot do this kind of major change without using everything that’s in your quiver.”

It’s also not clear how long any truce will last. Trump has often switched his position on trade issues. He has frequently declared that talks on a new North American Free Trade Agreement are going well, for example, only to threaten again to withdraw from the pact.

Mnuchin’s comments came after the two nations on Saturday released a joint statement in which China proposed to “significantly increase purchases” of U.S. goods.

The statement released by the White House didn’t place a dollar figure on the increased purchases by China, or address a comment on Friday by Kudlow suggesting that Beijing had agreed to slash its annual trade surplus with the U.S. by $200 billion. The U.S. had a $376 billion trade deficit in goods with China last year. The shortfall was $337 billion when services are added.

Kudlow on Sunday downplayed the significance of the $200 billion figure, saying on CBS that “maybe I got ahead of the curve” and during a separate interview on ABC’s “This Week” that “both sides have used that as a rough ballpark estimate.”

Vice Premier Liu He, a special envoy of China’s President Xi Jinping, told reporters in Washington that talks with Mnuchin, Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross and U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer ended with a pledge not to engage in a trade war, according to a Xinhua news agency report.

“We made very meaningful progress and we agreed on a framework. The framework includes their agreement to substantially reduce the trade deficit by increasing their purchases of goods,” Mnuchin said. He said the two sides have agreed to numerical targets but he didn’t want to disclose them.

The Chinese are offering to make structural reforms such as lowering tariffs and other import barriers that will allow the U.S. to export “billions and billions” of additional goods to China, Kudlow said on ABC.

“We made a lot of progress here in Washington and built on what happened in China,” Kudlow said. “The president is in a very positive mood about this. I myself am very encouraged.”

The joint statement between the two nations said both sides agreed on “meaningful increases” in U.S. agriculture and energy exports and that the U.S. will send a team to China to work out the details. Kudlow said Ross is going to the Asian nation and will be “looking into a number of areas where we’re going to have greatly, significant increases,” including energy, agriculture and manufacturing.

Even so, U.S. lawmakers will probably have pointed questions about what the administration has agreed to give up in exchange for a truce with China. In a major reversal, Trump instructed his administration last week to come up with a penalty against Chinese telecom-equipment maker ZTE Corp. that allows the company to stay in business. The Commerce Department had banned ZTE from receiving imports from its U.S. suppliers, a move that crippled ZTE.

The administration would face a “real backlash” if it offers concessions to ZTE as part of the trade talks, Republican Senator Lindsey Graham told Fox News.

Kudlow said on ABC that while there may be “perhaps some small changes around the edges” in U.S. action on ZTE, there will still be big fines and other remedies and “do not expect ZTE to get off scot-free. It ain’t gonna happen.”

During the trade talks, the delegations discussed expanding trade in manufactured goods, and each side agreed to strengthen cooperation on intellectual property. China will “advancerelevant amendments” to its laws and and regulations in that area, including its patent law, the White House said.

“If we can fix the technology stealing, which is so important in this China story, and we can get these market openings, this will be good for American export sales,” Kudlow said on ABC. “I think it’s good for Chinese growth. We will have come a long way.”

The White House joint statement didn’t mention additional U.S. demands, including a halt to subsidies and other government support for the Made in China 2025 plan that targets strategic industries from robotics to new-energy vehicles. China had made its own demands, including giving equal treatment to its investment, and warned U.S. companies may be excluded from measures to open its economy.

“This round of talks is generally positive,” said Li Yong, a senior fellow at the China Association of International Trade in Beijing, adding that the U.S. still may take a harder line on reviews of Chinese investments. “Trade tensions will ease gradually, but there still could be frictions.”</s>The United States has suspended a plan to impose new tariffs on Chinese imports as it works to hammer out a deal to reduce the trade deficit with Beijing.

In an interview on “Fox News Sunday,” Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said that the two countries made “very meaningful progress” during two days of trade talks in Washington, D.C. last week.

In April, President Donald Trump threatened to impose $150 billion in tariffs on Chinese products, citing alleged violations of U.S. intellectual property laws.

“We’re putting the trade war on hold,” Mnuchin said. “Right now, we have agreed to put the tariffs on hold while we try to execute the framework.”

The agreed-upon framework, as Mnuchin explained on the political talk show, would ramp up China’s purchases of American goods as well as ensure that American companies face fair competition in China. It would also implement “structural” changes to protect American technology — a centerpiece of Trump’s agenda.

Tariff Testimony Shows Crack in Alignment of Industry Trade Groups on China You Can Now Pay for Your Amazon Order With the Spare Change You Put Into Coinstar Machines

Mnuchin’s comments come a day after both countries announced an initial agreement on trade, revealing in a joint statement that China has conceded to “significantly increase” its purchases of U.S. goods and services to reduce the trade imbalance. The statement had no mention of Chinese telecom company ZTE, which has been accused of making illegal shipments to Iran and North Korea.

“[President Trump] could always decide to put the tariffs back on if China doesn’t go through with their commitments,” Mnuchin added.

While Trump’s initial tariff plan didn’t include shoes, footwear leaders have been on edge during the last few months.

FDRA President and CEO Matt Priest said recently the shoe industry is a case study in why tariffs don’t work. Despite paying steep duties since the 1930s that tallied nearly $3 billion last year alone, the U.S. imports 99 percent of its footwear. Protectionist trade policies such as this have done little to keep shoe manufacturing stateside.

“Production shifted away in spite of the tariffs, which just shows you that not everything is destined to be produced here in vast quantities to serve our consumer base,” Priest said. “The rhetoric [coming from the president] is interesting because it’s both reactionary and nationalistic but not necessarily wedded with economic theory or lessons learned.”

Tariff Testimony Shows Crack in Alignment of Industry Trade Groups on China

What President Donald Trump’s Steel, Aluminum Tariffs Would Mean for Retailers</s>WASHINGTON: US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin confirmed on Sunday (May 20) that Washington and Beijing have agreed to back off from imposing tariffs on each other, a day after reaching an accord on slashing the American trade deficit with China.

"We have made very meaningful progress and we agreed on a framework," Mnuchin told Fox News on Sunday. "So right now we have agreed to put the tariffs on hold while we try to execute the framework."

China's Vice Premier Liu He, who led a high-level delegation to the United States this week, meantime confirmed that "the two sides reached a consensus, will not fight a trade war, and will stop increasing tariffs on each other," official Chinese news agency Xinhua reported.

The apparent detente between the two economic giants follows months of increasing tensions that have set markets on edge over fears of a damaging trade war.

The US-Chinese thaw raised concerns in some other countries still facing potential US tariffs, however, with France saying it could come "at the expense of Europe."

Mnuchin emphasised on Sunday that the sides had also discussed structural changes by Beijing "to make sure that we have a fair ability to compete" in its vast market.

As each side worked to set expectations, Liu cautioned that "unfreezing the ice cannot be done in a day" and that structural changes "will take time."

Mnuchin added a caution of his own, emphasising that if China did not respect its commitments, Trump could "always decide to put the tariffs back on."

In the absence of an agreement, US levies on US$50 billion of Chinese imports could have taken effect as early as next week. Tariffs on steel and aluminium were put in place in March.

A joint statement issued on Saturday in Washington said Beijing would "significantly" increase its purchases of American goods, but offered few details.

Last year, the United States had a US$375.2 billion trade deficit with China, and Washington reportedly had demanded the deficit be slashed by at least US$200 billion by 2020.

Asked on Fox whether the agreement addressed the US$200 billion demand, Mnuchin said, "We have specific targets" but that he would not disclose them publicly.

He said they were set "industry by industry."

Trump's threats of further tariffs had prompted Beijing to warn it would target US agricultural exports, aircraft, and even whiskey.

Against that fraught backdrop, teams led by Mnuchin and Liu met earlier this month in Beijing.

Both sides said further talks are planned to flesh out details.

"There was a consensus on taking effective measures to substantially reduce the United States trade deficit in goods with China," Saturday's joint statement said.

It added that "China will significantly increase purchases of United States goods and services."

Mnuchin said there would be "a very big increase" in Chinese purchases of US agricultural supplies - by 35 per cent to 45 per cent this year - as well as a potential doubling of energy purchases.

And Liu said the new cooperation would extend to medical care, high-tech products and finance, according to Xinhua.

The two sides also agreed to strengthen cooperation on protecting intellectual property - a long-standing source of US discontent.

The trade issue is complicated by the impending summit meeting in Singapore between Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, who has consulted with Chinese leader Xi Jinping.

China is North Korea's biggest trade partner, and Trump has called on it repeatedly to press Pyongyang to rein in its nuclear and missile programmes.

Meantime, the effects of the new US-Chinese warming were being nervously assessed in other countries, with French Economy Minister Bruno Le Maire warning on Sunday that it could exact a cost from Europe.

"The United States and China risk entering an agreement at the expense of Europe if Europe is not capable of showing a firm hand," he told CNEWS television.

Trump earlier this month granted the EU, along with Canada and Mexico, only a 30-day reprieve from threatened steel and aluminium tariffs.

"The United States wants to make Europe and European countries pay for China's bad behaviour," Le Maire said. "All of that is totally absurd and incomprehensible for allies."</s>The Trump administration won’t impose tariffs on Chinese products for now, after the two nations made progress on trade issues during two days of talks, Treasury Secretary Steven T. Mnuchin said.

“We’re putting the trade war on hold. So right now, we have agreed to put the tariffs on hold while we try to execute the framework,” Mnuchin said on “Fox News Sunday.”

President Trump had threatened to impose tariffs on as much as $150 billion in Chinese imports to punish Beijing over alleged violations of American intellectual property and unfair trade practices. China vowed to retaliate with tariffs on everything from soybeans to airplanes.

Mnuchin’s remarks will be a relief to investors, who had feared the world’s two biggest economies were on the brink of an all-out trade conflict. The International Monetary Fund has warned that a global trade war would undermine the broadest global upswing in years.</s>Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin said Sunday that the U.S. and China -- the world’s two biggest economies -- have reached a tentative deal to cut trade deficits that includes the U.S. putting China tariffs on hold, an agreement that potentially averts an economic standoff that would have global impact.

“We have made very meaningful progress, and we agreed on a framework,” Mnuchin told “Fox News Sunday” after weekend talks in Washington with Chinese officials about cutting the U.S. trade deficit with China, which last year reached $337 billion. “We’re putting the trade war on hold.”

Mnuchin, who was the country’s lead negotiator in the talks, said the tariffs will be put on hold while the countries try to execute the framework agreement.

Mnuchin also said the tentative agreement includes China buying “substantially” more U.S. goods to cut the deficit, structural changes to the Chinese economy to help make the U.S. more competitive in that market and “protections on technology, which have been very important to the president.”

Trump, since his 2016 presidential campaign, has argued that the United States must renegotiate trade agreements with China and other countries to become more competitive in the global economy. And he has complained about China violating international property laws.

Trump on Friday called the existing U.S.-China agreement "bad for our country” and said, “We're changing it around."

On Saturday, the White House said, in what it called a joint statement, that the U.S. and China had agreed to take steps to reduce the deficit.

The statement essentially highlighted the same points Mnuchin mentioned Sunday and that next steps include the U.S. sending a team to China to work out the details.

After the White House announcement, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer suggested the agreement falls short on protecting America’s intellectual property.

“The key to a strong agreement is protecting our intellectual property here in America and stopping the Chinese from keeping out our best goods until we hand over our trade secrets and know-how in such things as required joint ventures,” said Schumer, D-N.Y. “The joint statement has nothing specific on those fronts, and no amount of immediate and short-term purchases of American goods will make up for that.”

Schumer also argued that the tentative agreement announced Saturday did not address the issue of Chinese phone-maker ZTE violating U.S. sanctions on doing telecommunications business with Iran and North Korea.

Mnuchin said Sunday : “This is an enforcement issue. It’s not a trade issue.”

The Associated Press contributed to this report.</s>(CNN Money) — After weeks of tensions, China and the United States have reached a ceasefire.

Both sides this weekend said they had agreed to not impose new tariffs on one another, after reaching an initial agreement on trade.

In a joint statement on Saturday, the countries said China would “significantly increase” purchases of US goods and services to reduce their trade imbalance. This was a top demand of the Trump administration during two days of trade talks in Washington with Chinese officials.

“We’re putting the trade war on hold,” US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin told “Fox News Sunday. “We have agreed to put the tariffs on hold while we try to execute the framework.”

Mnuchin’s remarks echoed those by China Vice Premier Liu He, the top economic adviser to Chinese President Xi Jinping. He said the two sides have pledged not to engage in a trade war, according to state-run news agency Xinhua.

Mnuchin said the countries have agreed on a trade framework — though there aren’t many details. The joint announcement released Saturday did not put a dollar amount on China’s commitment to increase purchases.

The pledge for more cooperation comes as the US and China, the world’s two largest economies, have threatened tens of billions of dollars in tariffs that could lead to a trade war.

Both sides specifically agreed to “meaningful increases” in US agriculture and energy exports, according to the statement. The US intends to send a team to China to hammer out the details.

US officials on Thursday told CNN that Beijing had proposed boosting Chinese purchases of American goods by around $200 billion. But at a regular news briefing in Beijing on Friday, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Lu Kang denied such an offer had been made.

The statement also did not mention ZTE, the Chinese tech giant that has recently been at the center of the trade spat.

Last Sunday, in a move that surprised many, the president tweeted that he working with Chinese President Xi Jinping to help Chinese state-controlled phone and telecom equipment maker ZTE get back into business, adding the “Commerce Department has been instructed to get it done!”

ZTE halted its main operations after the Trump administration banned American companies from selling it vital product components. The US said that ZTE had lied to American officials about punishing employees who violated US sanctions against North Korea and Iran.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, in a statement on Saturday, criticized the joint announcement for seeming to keep lighter penalties for ZTE on the table.

“If the administration capitulates on ZTE and allows it to continue to exist, even if they are fined — they’ve been fined once already — that will signal to President Xi that we are weak negotiators,” Schumer said.

Schumer also protested what he said was a lack of concrete steps needed to protect US intellectual property.

In March, Trump proposed tariffs on $50 billion worth of Chinese exports following a months-long investigation into IP theft, calling it a “tremendous” problem. China, in turn, pledged retaliatory tariffs on US items like planes, cars and soybeans. Trump then raised the possibility of an additional round of tariffs worth $100 billion.

China and the United States said in Saturday’s statement only that the two countries would “strengthen cooperation” on intellectual property protections, and that China “will advance relevant amendments to its laws and regulations in this area.”

Scott Kennedy, an expert on the Chinese economy at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, said the joint statement is “too vague to be binding on its own.”

“It commits neither side to any specific action, either to expand trade and investment, constrain industrial policy or not adopt penalties,” he said.

The key, according to Kennedy, is whether the US decided to drop its tariffs linked to the intellectual property investigation.

“If yes, China got a huge win,” he said. “If not, we at most have a temporary respite in hostilities.”</s>The White House has released a “Joint Statement of the United States and China Regarding Trade Consultations“:

“At the direction of President Donald J. Trump and President Xi Jinping, on May 17 and 18, 2018, the United States and China engaged in constructive consultations regarding trade in Washington, D.C. The United States delegation included Secretary of the Treasury Steven T. Mnuchin, Secretary of Commerce Wilbur L. Ross, and United States Trade Representative Robert E. Lighthizer. The Chinese delegation was led by State Council Vice Premier Liu He, Special Envoy of President Xi.”

“There was a consensus on taking effective measures to substantially reduce the United States trade deficit in goods with China. To meet the growing consumption needs of the Chinese people and the need for high-quality economic development, China will significantly increase purchases of United States goods and services. This will help support growth and employment in the United States.”

“Both sides agreed on meaningful increases in United States agriculture and energy exports. The United States will send a team to China to work out the details.

The delegations also discussed expanding trade in manufactured goods and services. There was consensus on the need to create favorable conditions to increase trade in these areas.

Both sides attach paramount importance to intellectual property protections, and agreed to strengthen cooperation. China will advance relevant amendments to its laws and regulations in this area, including the Patent Law.

Both sides agreed to encourage two-way investment and to strive to create a fair, level playing field for competition.

Both sides agreed to continue to engage at high levels on these issues and to seek to resolve their economic and trade concerns in a proactive manner.”</s>Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said Sunday that the United States was temporarily suspending tariffs on Chinese goods after an agreement was reached to reduce the bilateral trade deficit.

"We are putting the trade war on hold," Mnuchin said in a "Fox News Sunday" television interview. "Right now, we have agreed to put the tariffs on hold while we try to execute the framework."</s>US suspending new tariffs while negotiating trade with China, Mnuchin says

WASHINGTON — The United States has put on hold its plan to impose sweeping tariffs on Chinese products as it presses forward with negotiations to reduce its trade deficit with Beijing, a top priority of President Trump.

Steven Mnuchin, the Treasury secretary, said Sunday that the two countries had made progress as they concluded two days of intense trade negotiations in Washington late last week. The planned tariffs on $150 billion worth of Chinese goods are off the table while the talks proceed, he said.

“We’re putting the trade war on hold,” Mnuchin said on “Fox News Sunday.”

After finishing the talks in Washington, the two sides released a joint statement Saturday that offered little detail about what had been decided. Mnuchin said Sunday that they had agreed on a “framework” under which China would increase its purchases of U.S. goods, while putting in place “structural” changes to protect U.S. technology and to make it easier for U.S. companies to compete in China.

While U.S. officials had signaled last week that China had agreed to increase purchases by $200 billion, Mnuchin declined to confirm that figure. “We have very specific targets; I’m not going to disclose what they are,” Mnuchin said.

He suggested that under a deal, China would make big increases in its purchases of U.S. agricultural products and energy over the next several years.

Larry Kudlow, Trump’s chief economic adviser, said Sunday that the $200 billion number was a “rough ballpark estimate” that both sides had used. It is a figure that simply “interests the president a lot,” he said, and is not an indication that a deal of that size is imminent.

“They are offering to make structural reforms, such as lower tariffs and lowering nontariff barriers, which will permit us to export billions and billions more goods to China,” Kudlow said of China on ABC’s “This Week” program.

Economists have voiced doubts about the $200 billion figure, an amount equivalent to more than half the annual U.S. trade deficit with China. They say it would be difficult to increase U.S. exports by anything close to that figure, given structural hurdles in China and limits to how much the United States could increase its production of goods.

Alan Rappeport and Noah Weiland are New York Times writers.
The United States and China say through a joint statement that they will not impose new tariffs on each other after reaching an initial agreement on the trade framework.