'With China, it's always we verify': Trump's top aide on trade deal with Beijing

US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer said while China is complying with the terms of the bilateral trade agreements with the US, Washington is still constantly monitoring Beijing’s commitment to the subject. The assertion came as both sides attempt to maintain a stable trade relationship with each other.

“With China, it’s always we verify, and we monitor, and we watch the commitments. The commitments are quite specific,” Greer told Fox News on Sunday. “So all of these things that we have agreed to with the Chinese recently are very concrete, we can monitor them with some ease, and so far, we are seeing that they are in compliance," he furthered.

The American trade representative noted that China has gotten approximately “a third” of the way through its soybean purchase commitment for this growing season. According to Bloomberg, however, China’s purchases of American soybeans appeared to have stalled after a series of orders were placed in October.

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China-US work on trade deal

During US President Donald Trump's meeting with his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping in late October, both sides agreed to extend a tariff truce, roll back export controls and reduce other trade barriers. However, some elements of the deal, including the soybean purchases, the sale of social media app TikTok and an increase in licenses to export critical rare earths from China, remain in progress.

In light of this, on Friday, US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Greer held a video call with Chinese Vice-Premier He Lifeng during which the two sides had an “in-depth and constructive” discussion in which they vowed to keep stable ties and address “respective concerns” on trade and the economies of both nations, Xinhua reported.

On Sunday, Bessent told CBS News that China will not speed up purchases, but they are still expected to take place this crop season and said soybean prices are up 12 to 15 per cent since the agreement with China. He also noted that he divested from a soybean farm to comply with an ethics agreement.

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‘Need to be cautious’

When asked if chipmakers such as Nvidia should give China advanced chips or if doing so would pose a security risk to the US, Greer expressed a need for the US to be cautious.

“My own view is we need to be very cautious about this,” Trump’s trade representative told Fox News.

“We want companies’ bottom lines to do well, but as policymakers, we need to make sure that national security is placed first and foremost, and that’s why you have heard President Trump talk about the types of chips that maybe would be restricted and there’s always an open discussion on where that threshold lies, and it changes over time," he added.