On Monday, PAG CEO Weijian Shan told CNBC that the US economy is hurting more compared to China by the trade war.

Trade war hurting the US more than China

Shan indicated that both the US and China have suffered the effects of the trade war, but the damage is more on the US’s economy relative to China. He added that the Chinese economy has also suffered significant damage. Shan said that for China, investor confidence has been at its lowest for the last 15 months. Shan affirmed that US consumers are feeling the effects of the war because exporters are not reducing the prices of Chinese products.

His remarks came hours after reports indicating that Beijing was ready for another round of negotiations before agreeing to the first phase of the trade agreement. Last week President Trump indicated that the two countries had reached an agreement in what he called the phase 1 of the deal. He, however, didn’t provide any details regarding what was contained in the agreement.

The US and China reach an understanding of trade war

On Monday, Steven Mnuchin, the US Treasury Secretary, indicated that he could not offer details on the status of the agreement but indicated that talks had been positive. He said that they had achieved an agreement in principle that was waiting for codification. Mnuchin said that he was optimistic that they would close the phase 1 deal.

However, he warned that if they do not reach an agreement, then a new round of tariffs will come in place. The tariffs that were to be effective this month will not happen, but those scheduled for December will take effect if there is no deal.

According to Shan, reaching an understanding between the parties was not the problem, but the issue was having the details in ink. In June, when the sides seemed to have reached a compromise, the talks broke down and resulted in more tariffs. There is optimism that the leaders of the two countries might sign the deal next month in Chile during the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation conference.