China will 'certainly' honor phase one trade promises, Blackstone's Schwarzman says
'The Chinese are quite enthusiastic about pursuing phase two agreement'
President Trump and China Vice Premier Liu He made the landmark China trade agreement official on Wednesday after they signed the phase one deal during a ceremony in Washington.
Although China is notorious for being untrustworthy, billionaire Stephen Schwarzman, CEO of global asset giant Blackstone, told FOX Business’ Neil Cavuto the nation will “certainly” honor its promises.
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The detailed trade agreement, which includes China's agreement to protect intellectual property, holding back from currency manipulation, cooperate in financial services and purchase more than $200 billion of U.S. products over the next two years, is the result of three years of meetings, Schwarzman noted.
“What’s fascinating is it takes a while before each country figures out what it really will do, what’s in its interests and how they are going to pursue the future under that deal,” he said.
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Schwarzman said the Chinese have had a lot of time to think about the pact, and from talking to people who “have the responsibility for implementing this deal” he gathered that “they’re all over it.”
“Their country is complex, the have the reformers, they have their hard-liners, they have come together,” he said.
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Investors can also breathe easy. “The worry about escalation in the trade area is really behind us,” Schwarzman noted. “The question is how productive can we make this going forward,” he said. Schwarzman believes the details within phase one will “set a new baseline.”
“The Chinese are quite enthusiastic about pursuing phase two agreement, addressing other issues and of course there will be further rollbacks of tariffs when that happens,” he explained.
Schwarzman was among one of the earliest investors in China and founded the Schwarzman Scholars program in Beijing that was designed to help the “next generation of global leaders for the challenged of the future,” according to its website.
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