Trade war: China, US may not release full details of phase one deal set for signing this week
- Former White House official suggests that the full details of a US-China phase one trade deal will not be released
- Text on structural terms will be published, but information on individual commodity purchases will not be made public
This story is part of an ongoing series on US-China relations, jointly produced by the South China Morning Post and POLITICO, with reporting from Asia and the United States.
High-ranking Trump administration officials have insisted that details of the agreement will be made available.
However, there are signs that the full text and numbers will not be publicly disclosed. US Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer has previously said that some aspects of the deal will not be released, including specific targets for Chinese commodity purchases, to avoid market manipulation.
“You will get the top line categorical numbers, but not the individual product lines,” said Clete Willems, who was until last year deputy director of the National Economic Council and a member of the US negotiating team with China.
The administration is not legally obliged to publish the full text of the deal because it was an executive agreement that did not require congressional approval, said Derek Scissors, a resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute.
