Mubasher: China and the US agreed to lift some existing tariffs on one another’s products in tranches as they work towards hammering out a “Phase One” trade deal, the Chinese Commerce Ministry said on Thursday.

“In the past two weeks, top negotiators had serious, constructive discussions and agreed to remove the additional tariffs in phases as progress is made on the agreement,” ministry spokesman Gao Feng said.

Washington and Beijing must simultaneously scrap some existing tariffs on each others’ goods.

The cancelled tariffs must be the same, while the value of tariffs to be cancelled could be negotiated.

“If China, US reach a phase-one deal, both sides should roll back existing additional tariffs in the same proportion simultaneously based on the content of the agreement, which is an important condition for reaching the agreement,” Gao said.

A meeting between US President Donald Trump and his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping to sign a provisional trade deal could be postponed until December, a senior White House official told Reuters on Wednesday.

This came as negotiations over terms and venue were still ongoing, the official said.

“The trade war started with increasing tariffs and should end in removing all tariffs” Gao said.