OREANDA-NEWS. Bloomberg agency reports, citing sources familiar with this issue, that US President Donald Trump approved the first phase of a trade deal with China.

It is noted that American leader intends to avoid the need to introduce additional duties on a number of goods from China worth about 160 billion dollars.

According to Bloomberg’s interlocutors, Trump has already signed a decision on the implementation of the first stage of the trade agreement with Beijing. Within its framework, Chinese authorities promised to increase the volume of purchases of American agricultural products. In addition, the parties discussed the possibility of reducing existing US duties on imports of Chinese goods.

According to sources, the terms of the first stage of the trade transaction have already been agreed, but the legal matters connecting the document have not yet been considered.

The White House representative refused to comment on this information to the agency.

On the evening of December 12, Trump wrote on his Twitter page: “Getting very close to a big deal with China. They want it, and so do we!”

Prior to this, The Wall Street Journal, citing sources, reported that Washington in negotiations with Beijing proposed halving duties on Chinese goods in the amount of about 360 billion dollars. According to magazine’s sources, the US is also ready to abandon the increase in tariffs on some goods from China scheduled for December 15. Washington demanded that Beijing undertook to acquire large quantities of American agricultural and other products, protect the rights to American intellectual property and provide the wider access of the United States to the financial services sector of China. Otherwise, the USA may return duties to the previous level.