Text of phase one trade deal balanced and fair, - Global Times reports, citing commentary by Chinese experts

The Global Times notes that China's Vice Premier Liu He and the U.S. President Donald Trump signed the phase one trade agreement on Wednesday and the deal was largely in line with expectations. 

Among the main points is China's pledge to increase imports of the U.S. agricultural, manufacturing and energy products by $200 billion from $186 billion in 2017.

According to Liang Ming, the director of the Chinese Academy of International Trade and Economic Cooperation's foreign trade institute, this should not be too difficult. 

He also noted that the pledge to increase imports of manufactured goods by $77.7 billion will include large machinery and China also has a huge demand for crude and natural gas imports. "Prices of these U.S. products are very competitive so we can't say China has been taken advantage of," he added.

In addition, the deal included terms about the U.S. ensuring market supply, which could mean Washington will lift bans on the chip exports to China, Liang said. If it's the case, there is a huge potential as China imports $300 billion worth of chips each year, he estimated.

Apart from the purchases, the agreement also included terms on intellectual property rights (IPR) protection, technology transfer and market opening. 

"The U.S. largely confirmed that there would be equal treatment as China in IPR protection and technology transfer, which could be a tacit approval of Huawei going into the US market," Wang Wen, executive dean of Chongyang Institute for Financial Studies at Renmin University of China, told the Global Times, referring to the Chinese telecom company that has been blacklisted by the U.S.

A crucial guarantee of the healthy development of China-U.S. trade relations, the Trade Framework Group, will be created to discuss the implementation of the phase one trade agreement and to settle disputes.

"The mechanism can help relieve distrust between the two countries. Once trust is built, the two sides are expected to resolve trade friction through dialogue and communication instead of imposing additional tariffs," Liang said, noting that he believed the mechanism could be earnestly implemented to reduce serious trade confrontations between the two.

Along with the signing of the trade deal, a certain amount of the existing tariffs on Chinese products imposed by the U.S. may be lifted in mid-2020, Liang added.