US temporarily suspends tariffs on Chinese products
Washington, May 21: The US has put on hold its plan to impose sweeping tariffs on Chinese products as it presses forward with negotiations to reduce its trade deficit with Beijing, a top priority of President Donald Trump.
US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said on Sunday that the two countries had made progress as they concluded three days of trade negotiations in Washington late last week. The planned tariffs on $150 billion worth of Chinese goods were off the table while the talks proceeded, he was cited as saying by the New York Times.
"We are putting the trade war on hold," Mnuchin said in a "Fox News Sunday" television interview. He said they had agreed on a "framework" under which China would increase its purchases of US goods while putting in place "structural" changes to protect US technology and to make it easier for American companies to compete in China.
While Trump administration officials said last week that China had agreed to increase its purchases of American products by $200 billion by 2020, Chinese officials had pushed back on that claim and the joint statement the two sides released lacked any such dollar figure.
Mnuchin declined to confirm that figure. "We have very specific targets; I'm not going to disclose what they are. "They go industry by industry."
He suggested that under a deal, China would make big increases in its purchases of US agricultural products and energy over the next several years.
Larry Kudlow, Trump's chief economic adviser, said Sunday that the $200 billion number was a "rough ballpark estimate" that both sides had used.
It is a figure that simply "interests the President a lot", he said, and is not an indication that a deal of that size is imminent.
"They are offering to make structural reforms such as lower tariffs and lowering non-tariff barriers, which will permit us to export billions and billions more goods to China," Kudlow said of China on ABC's "This Week" programme. "That's the elementary point. That's the key point."
Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross will soon visit Beijing to finalize the agreement whereby China will import more energy products and agricultural commodities from the US, the Treasury Secretary said.
Let the Truth be known. If you read VB and like VB, please be a VB Supporter and Help us deliver the Truth to one and all.
Accused in Salman house firing incident found dead: Post mortem confirms hanging, say cops
Mumbai (PTI): The post mortem report of Anuj Thapan, an accused in the April 14 firing incident outside the Bandra house of actor Salman Khan, confirmed he died of hanging as there are ligature marks on the neck and signs of asphyxia, a Mumbai police official said on Friday.
Thapan, who was held from Punjab along with his associate Sonu Bishnoi on April 26 and is accused of supplying firearms and bullets for the firing incident, was found dead in the lock-up of the Crime Branch in the commissionerate complex at Crawford Market on Wednesday.
He had allegedly hanged himself with a bed sheet in the toilet of the lock-up, as per police.
"The post mortem was conducted on Thursday evening in state-run JJ Hospital in Byculla. As per the report, there are ligature marks on the neck and signs of asphyxia, all of which confirm that he died of hanging," the police official said.
The doctors who conducted the post mortem have reserved their opinions, while the deceased's viscera, tissue and other samples have been preserved for forensic and chemical analysis and organs for histopathology, he informed.
"Footage from the lock-up CCTV shows Thapan going into the toilet alone. It is a clear cut case of suicide," another official said.
Four persons, comprising Thapan, Sonu Bishnoi, shooters Sagar Pal and Vicky Gupta, have been arrested in connection with the firing incident, while gangster Lawrence Bishnoi and his brother Anmol Bishnoi have been shown as wanted accused, as per police.
