By Sandy Fitzgerald From Newsmax

The United States and China have a “fundamental agreement” in the first phase of addressing key elements of the ongoing trade war between the two countries, as “substantial progress” was made last week, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said Monday. 

“We have a fundamental agreement that is subject to documentation,” Mnuchin told CNBC’s “Squawk Box.” “There’s a lot of work to be done on that front but it includes intellectual property rights, it includes financial services, it includes currency and foreign exchange, and it also includes very significant structural issues in agriculture on top of significant purchases.”

He went on to say that he would describe phase one of the deals as “quite substantial. As the president has said, as soon as we get phase one complete we’ll move to phase two.”

President Donald Trump has postponed tariffs, which were to begin on Tuesday, on a remaining $300 billion in Chinese goods, but Mnuchin said the tariffs will still go into play if China does not agree to the current deal. 

“China has agreed on agriculture that they’re going to take off tariffs on agriculture and they’re going to start purchasing agriculture,” Mnuchin said. “They had been in the market, but they’ll be stepping that up.”

However, Mnuchin said that it was not discussed whether China will divert agriculture sales, but “very specific targets” were discussed for purchases. 

“They’re very big targets,” said Mnuchin, adding that the U.S. expects the target to be $40 billion to $50 billion. “I think they had some concerns as to whether our farmers could meet those numbers. We think they can. But we expect this is a great deal for our farmers.”

Meanwhile, there is another set of tariffs set to hit on Dec. 15, and Mnuchin said he has “every expectation” that if there is not a deal by then, the tariffs will go into place, “but I expect we’ll have a deal.”

Mnuchin also discussed the ongoing struggles between the NBA and China, after he was asked if team members or coaches should be able to speak out against the Chinese government. 

“The NBA itself has processes in China, and this is up for them to work out,” said Mnuchin. “It’s not for us to dictate what they should be doing, but I would hope they work out these issues.

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