A US-China phase one trade deal may not be inked this year

Asked Wednesday about the status of the China deal, Trump told reporters in Texas "I don't think they're stepping up to the level that I want."

WASHINGTON: Completion of a "phase one" U.S.-China trade deal could slide into next year, trade experts and people close to the White House said, as Beijing presses for more extensive tariff rollbacks, and the Trump administration counters with heightened demands of its own.

U.S. President Donald Trump and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said in an Oct. 11 news conference that an initial trade deal could take as long as five weeks to ink.