PAUL WISEMAN and JOE MCDONALD
AP Business Writers
WASHINGTON (AP) — After 18 months of economic combat, the United States and China are set to take a step toward peace Wednesday. At least for now.
President Donald Trump and China's chief negotiator, Liu He, are scheduled to sign a modest trade agreement in which the administration will ease some sanctions on China and Beijing will step up its purchases of U.S. farm products and other goods. Above all, the deal will defuse a conflict that has slowed global growth, hurt American manufacturers and weighed on the Chinese economy.
But the so-called Phase 1 pact does little to force China to make the major economic reforms — such as reducing unfair subsidies for its own companies —that the Trump administration sought when it started th
