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China has urged the US to create good conditions to expand bilateral trade cooperation as the phase one trade deal is to expire in early 2022, China's Ministry of Commerce (MOFCOM) said on Thursday.

Gao Feng, a spokesperson for the MOFCOM, made the remarks during a routine press conference in Beijing on Thursday, in response to media reports alleging that China has pulled back on its already halting progress toward meeting its purchasing targets under the trade deal, in which China agreed to expand its purchases of US agricultural and other products by $200 billion over 2020 and 2021 from 2017 levels.

Gao said that since the deal came into effect, China has strived to overcome negative factors including the coronavirus pandemic, the global economic recession and the disruptions of supply chains, in a bid to push both sides to implement the deal.

US and Chinese economic and trade teams have maintained normal communication, and any new developments will be made public at the earliest time, he noted. 

From January to November, bilateral trade between the world's two largest economies hit $682.32 billion, a year-on-year increase of 30.2 percent, and China's exports to the US increased 28.3 percent year-on-year, while imports grew 36.9 percent, according to data released by Chinese customs.

"The pandemic has made trade between China, the world's leading manufacturing country, and the US, the world's biggest consumption market, more complementary," Gao Lingyun, an expert at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS), told the Global Times on Thursday.

According to the CASS expert, China has exerted its full strength to meet the goals set by the phase one trade deal, which requires cooperation between the two countries to create a positive trade environment. 

"During the past two years, China has been unable to make purchases due to congestion at US ports and its bans on certain products, including semiconductor chips," Gao Lingyun said.

He noted that by the end of this year or early next year, the two sides will assess the implementation of the trade deal before launching the next round of negotiations.

Global Times