US and China reach 'consensus' over trade deal - report

Washington and Beijing have reportedly reached a ‘consensus’ on trade talks, spurring hopes that a deal could be imminent.

According to the state-run Xinhua News Agency, US Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer and Steve Mnuchin, Treasury Secretary, spoke on the phone with Liu He, China’s main trade negotiator, on Tuesday morning.

In a translation of the Chinese language statement, the press agency continued: “Both sides discussed resolving core issues of common concern, reached consensus on how to resolve related problems [and] agreed to stay in contact over remaining issues for a phase one agreement.”

The statement came just a day after reports stated the two countries were “very close” to a phase one trade deal. The agreement was initially expected in November and concerns had been mounting that it could be pushed back until the new year as both sides struggled to reach a compromise. That in turn would have delayed talks concerning the more ambitious phase two deal.

But with the news now looking increasingly upbeat, markets reacted positively. On Monday, Wall Street closed in the black and following the latest update, prices of safe-haven asset gold fell to a two-week low.