Trump administration officials are debating whether to remove some existing tariffs on Chinese goods as a concession to seal a partial deal that would pause the trade war with Beijing as early as this month.
According to five people briefed on the discussions, the White House is considering whether to roll back levies on $112bn of Chinese imports — including clothing, appliances, and flatscreen monitors — that were introduced at a 15 per cent rate on September 1.
Such a move by the US would meet a core demand from Beijing as negotiators from the world’s two largest economies work out the terms of a ceasefire to be signed in the coming weeks by Donald Trump, the US president, and Xi Jinping, his Chinese counterpart.