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The United States and China are close to a trade deal that could lift most or all U.S. tariffs as long as Beijing follows through on pledges ranging from better protecting intellectual-property rights to buying a significant amount of American products, two people familiar with the discussions said.

Donald Trump’s decision to extend a deadline on additional tariffs on Chinese goods provides Xi Jinping with some temporary relief as he struggles to arrest an economic slowdown.

WASHINGTON — Trade officials representing the United States, Canada and Mexico committed to advancing the treaty that is meant to serve as a replacement for the North American Free Trade Agreement. The U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement was announced in late September as an update to NAFTA, which took effect in 1994.

U.S. and Chinese negotiators are working on multiple memorandums of understanding that would form the basis of a final trade deal, according to a person briefed on the talks.

U.S. corn sales to China have been part of the ongoing trade discussions between the nations, President Donald Trump said from the White House Oval Office on Feb. 19.

Canada’s statistics agency plans to resume publishing merchandise trade reports next month, after the end of a U.S. government shutdown that deprived it of export data.

The U.S.-European trade truce struck last summer that has helped keep punitive tariffs at bay is at risk of unraveling, with America’s top diplomat to the European Union citing a lack of goodwill and progress in negotiations.

The Trump administration confirmed it will hold two days of talks this week in Washington to discuss structural changes to China’s economy and Beijing’s pledge to buy more American goods.

According to people close to the discussions, the two sides have so far made little progress on the issue that any deal Trump strikes with China may ultimately be judged on: ending what the U.S. has dubbed as decades of state-coordinated Chinese theft of American intellectual property.

America’s manufacturers are scrambling to change the way they do business — from finding new suppliers to shifting more finishing work overseas — as the sting of tariffs begins to take a bigger toll on their bottom lines.