Trump spent half an hour thanking the attendees of the first-phase trade agreement, while the Chinese delegation waited patiently.

Deputy Prime Minister Liu He and three Chinese delegation officials had to stand on stage for about 30 minutes to wait for US President Donald Trump to finish his speech before the two countries signed a US-China trade agreement. paragraph one at the White House yesterday.

After the initial introduction, Trump yielded the microphone to Vice President Mike Pence for about 3 minutes to briefly outline the first-phase trade deal. Trump then went on to the podium and spent most of his time thanking the people present at the ceremony.

Trump named most of the people in the hall, from Fox Business host Lou Dobbs to Boeing CEO David Calhoun and son-in-law Jared Kushner. He also moved on topics unrelated to the trade deal, such as changing the rules so that fireworks could be held at Mount Rushmore.

"Trump spent the last 15 minutes naming the people in the hall and thanked them at the signing of the trade agreement with China. 'You are my friend', 'You are the biggest star', 'Here "More than 20 people," journalist Ben Riley-Smith of Telegraph wrote on Twitter when reporting the ceremony.

Five minutes later, Bloomberg journalist Alex Wayne continued to announce on Twitter that Trump's thank you was not over, while four Chinese officials remained quietly waiting right behind him.

"Luu Hac politely stood by and listened to a speech of self-praise, almost completely unrelated to President Trump's trade deal. Like 'Drew Ferguson, you're such a great friend. "" wrote BBC correspondent Stephen McDonell.

The presidential greetings and thank-you for being so rambling took so long that Bloomberg TV had to stop streaming the ceremony, while Chinese national television did not continue to translate speeches during the ceremony. but to the expert commentary on what the deal means.

The Chinese delegation was led by Deputy Prime Minister Liu He attending the signing of a one-day trade agreement on January 15 in Washington. The details of the deal were announced by the White House in 86 pages, including eight chapters, from strict intellectual property regulations in China to Beijing's commitment to buy at least US $ 200 billion in goods. , US services over the next two years, as well as China's pledge not to manipulate currency.

The two sides pledged that if everything was proceeding in accordance with the first phase agreement, they would start to consider the second phase agreement.