China still on hook for trade commitments made during Trump era, says US Trade official

US Trade Representative Katherine Tai on Wednesday said that Biden administration is evaluating China's compliance to the trade commitments it made with the previous Trump era and added that those commitments will ascertain how Washington will move forward in its ties with Beijing.

"We are in the process of examining performance and are scrutinising all the aspects of what they have done and what they have yet to do and what they have not done at the levels that they promised," Tai said, as quoted by Sputnik.

"These promises and China's ability to keep them ... will be a priority for us as we examine our options for engagement with China and all of our enforcement options."

In January 2020, China had agreed to buy at least USD 200 billion more in US goods and services over two years on top of its purchases in 2017. "The so-called Phase One deal was struck by former President Donald Trump after a tariffs fight that started between the two countries in 2018," Sputnik report said.

According to data cited by the Russian news agency, China imported about USD 100 billion of US goods - only 58 percent of the actual targeted volume of USD 173.1 billion for 2020, in the first year of the arrangement.

Biden administration has had a rocky start in US relationship with China, with officials from the two countries openly bickering before the media at a meeting in Alaska hosted by US State Secretary Anthony Blinken last month.

Both the countries have continued to tussle on issues pertaining to Hong Kong, Xinjiang, South China Sea, and the Indo-Pacific region. The only issue they partially seem to agree on is climate change

( With inputs from ANI )