Trump’s tour of Asia: China, US sign deals worth $250 billion

The massive agreement comes in the backdrop of visiting US President Donald Trump’s complaints of the trade deficit that his country has with China.

China and the US have signed business deals worth more than $250 billion, including the purchase of Boeing aircraft and a project to jointly develop liquefied natural gas in Alaska.

US President Donald Trump and his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping shake hands at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing on November 9, 2017. (AP)

The signing ceremony was carried out in the presence of US President Donald Trump and his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping.

Xi revealed the figure while addressing a gathering of business leaders and officials at the Great Hall of the People after the signing ceremony. China and the United States have huge potential in reciprocal economic and trade cooperation, he said.

Being the world’s biggest developing economy and developed economy, China and the United States are highly complementary rather than competitive, Xi said when meeting with business delegates from both countries.

“We are willing to expand imports of energy and farm produce from the United States, deepen service trade cooperation. We hope the US side will increase exports of civil technology products to China. We will continue to encourage Chinese companies to invest in the United States. We also welcome US companies and financial institutions to participate in the Belt and Road Initiative,” he was quoted as saying by the official Xinhua news agency

The massive deal comes in the backdrop of Trump’s complaints of the trade deficit that his country has with China. But they do not resolve many business and trade problems that the US government and companies have raised concerns about, including lack of access to sectors in the Chinese market, cybersecurity, intellectual property theft and Communist Party of China cells inside foreign firms.

William Zarit, chairman of the American Chamber of Commerce in China, was quoted by Reuters as saying that the deals pointed to “a strong, vibrant bilateral economic relationship” between the two countries.

“Yet we still need to focus on levelling the playing field because US companies continue to be disadvantaged doing business in China,” he said.