Trump Today: Trump announces phase-one China trade deal and scraps Dec. 15 tariffs

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President Donald Trump and other U.S. officials meet with China’s President Xi Jinping and Chinese officials at the end of the G20 Leaders’ Summit in Buenos Aires, on December 01, 2018.

President Donald Trump announced a phase-one trade deal with China on Friday, saying Beijing had agreed to purchases of U.S. goods and will avoid tariffs that had been set to go into place on Sunday.

‘MASSIVE PURCHASES’

Trump said over a pair of tweets that the Chinese had agreed to “many structural changes and massive purchases” of American farm, energy and manufactured goods — though the president put no numbers on that statement.

Separately Trump said tariffs that had been scheduled to begin Sunday on $156 billion in Chinese goods were being called off.

“The Penalty Tariffs set for December 15th will not be charged because of the fact that we made the deal,” the president wrote, tweeting as Chinese officials were briefing reporters in Beijing.

Trump also agreed to slash by half — from 15% to 7.5% — the tariffs on about $110 billion of goods that he imposed in September. But he said 25% levies on $250 billion in goods, imposed in 2018, would remain.

Before Trump’s statements, Chinese officials announced the agreement. U.S. stocks SPX, -0.04%   were trading slightly lower late Friday morning.

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