--- title: U.S., China Trade Chiefs to Speak as Trump Threatens Deal description: Top Chinese and U.S. trade negotiators will speak as soon as next week on progress in implementing a phase-one deal canonical: https://time.com/5833394/u-s-china-trade-deal-talks-trump/ author: TIME article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2020-05-07T09:25:21.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-04T07:52:08.988Z article:section: Politics og:title: U.S., China Trade Chiefs to Speak as Trump Threatens Deal og:description: Trump threatened to “terminate” the agreement if Beijing wasn’t adhering to the terms og:url: https://time.com/5833394/u-s-china-trade-deal-talks-trump/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltd4575508196257a4/698a0dcadb2987f47826550b/trump_trade_talks_china.jpg?branch=production&width=1024&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1024 og:image:height: 576 og:image:alt: trump_trade_talks_china.jpg og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: U.S., China Trade Chiefs to Speak as Trump Threatens Deal twitter:description: Trump threatened to “terminate” the agreement if Beijing wasn’t adhering to the terms twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltd4575508196257a4/698a0dcadb2987f47826550b/trump_trade_talks_china.jpg?branch=production&width=1024&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # U.S. and China Trade Chiefs to Speak as Trump Threatens Deal > Sponsored content. 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Brief is TIME's Washington newsletter, written by senior correspondent Philip Elliott. It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, three times a week. It reaches 85,000 subscribers with a 37.0% open rate as of August 2026. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters. ## Video: Trump Has Signed "Phase One" of the U.S.-China Trade Deal [Watch (HLS stream): Trump Has Signed "Phase One" of the U.S.-China Trade Deal](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/Kts3Dg9k.m3u8) (0:49)  _Published 2020-01-15. Trump Has Signed "Phase One" of the U.S.-China Trade Deal_ by [Bloomberg](https://time.com/author/bloomberg/) ## Bloomberg Contributor May 7, 2020 9:25 AM UTC  President Donald Trump and Chinese Vice Premier Liu He applaud before signing a trade agreement between the U.S. and China in the White House on Jan.15, 2020. President Donald Trump and Chinese Vice Premier Liu He applaud before signing a trade agreement between the U.S. and China in the White House on Jan.15, 2020.Saul Loeb—AFP/Getty Images by [Bloomberg](https://time.com/author/bloomberg/) ## Bloomberg Contributor May 7, 2020 9:25 AM UTC Top Chinese and U.S. trade negotiators will speak as soon as next week on progress in implementing a phase-one deal after President Donald Trump threatened to “terminate” the agreement if Beijing wasn’t adhering to the terms. Chinese Vice Premier Liu He will be on the call, according to people familiar with the matter. The U.S. will be represented by Robert Lighthizer, one of the people said. The planned phone call will be the first time Liu and Lighthizer speak officially about the agreement since it was signed in January, just before the global coronavirus pandemic hit the world’s two biggest economies and upended global supply chains. The deal called for Liu and Lighthizer to meet every six months, making next week’s call slightly ahead of schedule. Trump also seemed to suggest a development was on the horizon when he [told](https://www.foxbusiness.com/markets/trump-to-provide-update-on-china-trade-deal-next-week) reporters at the White House on Wednesday that he’d be able to report in the next week or two if he’s happy with how the trade deal is progressing. On Sunday, in response to a question at a town hall from a business owner who said he was losing money on the tariffs, Trump [noted](https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefings-statements/remarks-president-trump-fox-news-virtual-town-hall/) that the duties prompted China to promise to buy $250 billion worth of U.S. goods. “Now they have to buy,” the president said. “And if they don’t buy, we’ll terminate the deal, very simple.” According to the [text](https://ustr.gov/sites/default/files/files/agreements/phase%20one%20agreement/Economic%5FAnd%5FTrade%5FAgreement%5FBetween%5FThe%5FUnited%5FStates%5FAnd%5FChina%5FText.pdf) of the agreement signed earlier this year, China has agreed to buy an additional $200 billion in U.S. goods and services over two years compared with 2017’s level. The purchases so far have been behind the pace needed to reach the target of the first year’s $76.7 billion increase, as imports from the U.S. declined by 5.9% in the first four months of 2020 from a year ago due to the coronavirus outbreak. Given that the imports in 2019 were smaller than 2017, the pressure to catch up is mounting. Beijing plans to show the U.S. it is sincerely working to fulfill its commitments despite the virus causing delays to some targets, one of the people said. For example, some measures that boost enforcement of intellectual property protection need to be approved by the annual National People’s Congress, which was postponed from March to later this month. China’s commerce ministry didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment on the talks. The U.S. Trade Representative’s office also didn’t respond to emailed questions sent after normal business hours. Relations between the U.S. and China have deteriorated further since America became one of the countries hardest hit by the coronavirus. Trump has blamed China for misleading the world about the scale and risk of the disease, and even threatened more tariffs as punishment. China’s foreign ministry has in turn accused some U.S. officials of trying “to shift their own responsibility for their poor handling of the epidemic to others.” ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/5833394/u-s-china-trade-deal-talks-trump/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/5833394/u-s-china-trade-deal-talks-trump/"},"headline":"U.S. and China Trade Chiefs to Speak as Trump Threatens Deal","datePublished":"2020-05-07T09:25:21.000Z","dateModified":"2026-08-04T07:52:08.988Z","description":"Trump threatened to “terminate” the agreement if Beijing wasn’t adhering to the terms","url":"https://time.com/5833394/u-s-china-trade-deal-talks-trump/","keywords":["Trump Administration","wire","overnight","News Desk"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltd4575508196257a4/698a0dcadb2987f47826550b/trump_trade_talks_china.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Bloomberg","jobTitle":"Contributor","url":"https://time.com/author/bloomberg/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltd4575508196257a4/698a0dcadb2987f47826550b/trump_trade_talks_china.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"trump_trade_talks_china.jpg","caption":"US-CHINA-POLITICS-TRADE","creditText":"Saul Loeb—AFP/Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/trump-administration/","name":"Trump Administration"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/5833394/u-s-china-trade-deal-talks-trump/","name":"U.S. and China Trade Chiefs to Speak as Trump Threatens Deal"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"Trump Has Signed \"Phase One\" of the U.S.-China Trade Deal","description":"Trump Has Signed \"Phase One\" of the U.S.-China Trade Deal","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/Kts3Dg9k/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2020-01-15T18:49:55.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/Kts3Dg9k.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/5833394/u-s-china-trade-deal-talks-trump/","duration":"PT49S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/5833394/u-s-china-trade-deal-talks-trump/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}}] ```