Maureen Groppe

USA TODAY

WASHINGTON – Declaring the U.S. relationship with China is hitting a new high, Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross announced Thursday an agreement between the two countries on 10 trade issues.

Ross said the deal is the start of new communication and coordination with the Chinese. “This is more than has been done in the whole history of U.S.-China relations on trade,” he said.

While Ross called it a "herculean" accomplishment to find agreement between the countries in the initial 10 areas, he promised more deals would be coming. “There are probably 500 items that you could potentially discuss, maybe more than 500,” he said.

The agreement was striking especially given Trump's previous hard-line stance toward China. During last year’s presidential campaign, President Trump bashed China as a currency manipulator.

But he’s since reversed that position, suggesting it was part of a strategic plan to convince China to work with the U.S. to confront North Korea’s missile buildup. Yet Ross told reporters the North Korean situation was not mentioned during the trade negotiations. “It was not a quid pro quo,” he said.

He estimated the agreements would result in an improvement in the U.S. trade deficit with China by the end of the year.

Here are the initial areas of agreement.