China Still Implementing U.S. Trade Deal, Chinese Envoy Says

China’s ambassador to the U.S. said his country is still implementing the first phase of a trade agreement signed with the U.S. earlier this year and called for both nations to assess the changing situation as the coronavirus presents global economic challenges.

“Even for the last few weeks, when we are faced with this very serious, critical situation, people are still working on the implementation of this phase one deal,” Ambassador Cui Tiankai said in an interview with Eurasia Group’s Ian Bremmer on broadcast show Gzero World on April 3, according to transcript posted on the Chinese embassy’s website on Sunday.

Cui said China is still buying agricultural products from the U.S. and removing some of the restrictions on foreign companies in its domestic financial market as part of the agreement.

The ambassador agreed with Bremmer that the global economic landscape has been drastically changed by Covid-19. “So I just hope our two economic teams, if they can sit down together or just have a conference call, they can really make good assessment of the changing realities and coordinate our response to that,” Cui said in the interview.

China and the U.S. signed phase one of the trade deal in January, before the outbreak of the coronavirus.