USTR Lighthizer: Energy has been a problem in the China deal

Early Thursday morning in Asia, late-Wednesday in the West, the US Trade Representative (USTR) Robert Lighthizer crossed wires, via Reuters, while signaling the road blocks to the US-China trade deal.

Key quotes

Energy has been a problem in the china deal.

Ethanol in particular been a problem in the china deal, hoping for ethanol sales to china to go up.

US might need subsidies to support semiconductors.

Expect China will live up to terms of the Phase One agreement reached with the US with their purchases of ag goods expected to rise into late 2020.

FX implications

The news couldn’t offer any major market moves despite being risk-positive. The reason could be traced from the current attention on the coronavirus (COVID-19) updates. Even so, the AUD/USD pair, a gauge of the market’s risk, ticked up from 0.6880 to 0.6885 on the news.