"Substantial progress had been made in such areas as agriculture, intellectual property rights protection, exchange rate, financial services, expansion of trade cooperation, technology transfer and dispute settlement," state-run Xinhua news agency reported citing Liu He, the country's top negotiator. "The two sides also discussed arrangements for future consultations," Liu said when he met Trump Friday, according to Xinhua.Previously, Trump has blamed China for backtracking on its promises.On Friday, the US president played up the "substantial phase one" deal as a result of his hard-line stance with China. "It's not much and it doesn't get us very far in the big issues, so whether it will lead to anything important is still very unclear," said Barry Naughton, an expert on China's economy at the University of California, San Diego.The Chinese Communist Party mouthpiece People's Daily warned in an editorial Saturday the trade war would only be resolved by "abolishing all tariffs. "Even if the US and China reach a comprehensive trade deal, the US will likely tighten restrictions on China's access to technology in the coming years," said Wang Tao, head of Asia economics at UBS Investment Bank. "The US has elevated this issue to national security and it may be hard to reverse, no matter what kind of agreement they reach (or not) on Huawei," said Wang Tao, head of Asia economics at UBS Investment Bank.

Source: Economic Times October 12, 2019 11:15 UTC