Trade negotiations to remain complicated between US and China, says Geoffrey Dennis

The trade negotiations are extremely complicated between the US and China and issues still remain between the two countries, said emerging markets commentator Geoffrey Dennis on Wednesday, adding that it will take " a lot of work" to improve the situation.

The US and China will finally sign the documents of Phase 1 of the trade deal on Wednesday after 18 months of economic combat. However, US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, ahead of the signing of the documents, said that the Trump administration would keep tariffs on Chinese goods in place until the second phase of the trade deal between the two countries is completed.

“There is a lot of uncertainty still and one of the most important element is that it’s still going to retain tariffs around $360 billion of Chinese goods coming into the US. So it’s an agreement on increased US exports to China, it’s an agreement on China behaving better in terms of not forcing companies investing in China to divulge the technology,” said Dennis in an interview with CNBC-TV18.

“I think there could be some market disappointment with this because this may not signal the end of the trade conflict,” he added.

When asked about Phase-II of the trade deal, Dennis said, “The fact that you get Phase-I deal now and you may not get another deal for a year or something in that order, just shows you how complicated these trade negotiations are and how many issues there still are between the US and China.”

“By starting this trade war and escalating it to such a great extent, President Trump has created a situation where to get out of this now with a full-fledged agreement where the tariffs are all the way rolled back to zero or close to zero is going to take a lot of work," he added.