U.S. considers dropping some tariffs on China to reach 'phase one' trade deal: WSJ

Hopes are rising over the world's two biggest economies to end their trade war... as the U.S. and China are reportedly considering dropping some of the tariffs for their "phase one" of the trade deal.Our Kim Jae-hee has has more.The Wall Street Journal reported on Tuesday that the U.S. and China are actively considering withdrawing some tariffs.A senior Trump administration official was quoted as saying removing tariffs will be "part of it" if the U.S. and China reach a trade deal.Washington and Beijing agreed in principle last month to end the trade conflict. The "phase one" trade deal would include China's purchase of American agricultural goods and rules to deter currency manipulation.It would also contain methods to protect U.S. intellectual property in exchange for freezing tariff increases on hundreds of billions of dollars of Chinese goods.The U.S. Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross made positive remarks regarding the matter on Tuesday,... saying that good progress was being made towards completing the phase one trade deal.China’s foreign ministry also sent out positive signals, saying the two leaders have maintained continuous contact."On October 25, the heads of the two teams agreed in a telephone call to properly address each other's core concerns and affirmed that technical consultations on part of the text have been basically completed. They will have another telephone call shortly. In the meantime, working-level consultations will be continued at a fast pace. "This is also in line with President Trump's recent optimistic remarks."We are looking probably to be ahead of schedule to sign a very big portion of the China deal, we’ll call it Phase One but it’s a very big portion."With the trade war between the world's two biggest economies going on for more than a year, hopes are high among global markets for a trade deal to be reached as early as this month.Kim Jae-hee, Arirang News.