Outbreak will not change China's commitments to buy U.S. goods: senior U.S. official

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The U.S. government expects China to honor its commitments to buy more U.S. goods under a trade deal signed by the world’s two largest economies in January, despite the fast-spreading coronavirus outbreak, a senior U.S. Treasury official said on Thursday.

The official said it was still too soon to make accurate forecasts for the impact of the virus on the global economy, but the base case scenario foresees a V-shaped impact that would see China’s growth drop in the first quarter and then rebound.

Asked if the outbreak would require changes to the Phase 1 trade deal with China, the official said, “At this stage, we’re not expecting changes to implementation of Phase 1 … We still expect them to meet their commitment, but it’s over a period of time.”

Under the deal, which took effect this month, China has pledged to increase U.S. goods purchases by $77 billion in 2020 and by $123 billion by 2021, compared to a baseline of U.S. imports from 2017, the year before the U.S.-China tariff war began.

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