Donald Trump said Tuesday that the first phase of a broad trade deal with China is 'done' and he expects to host a signing ceremony with Xi Jinping 'at the right time.'

The president spoke to reporters at his Mal-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach, Florida, following a series of pre-Christmas video chats with U.S. servicemen and women overseas.

'I wil be probably doing that, yes, at the right time,' Trump said, responding to a question about participating in a formal trade pact signing.

'We'll be doing a smaller ceremony. Ultimately we will be having one. The China deal—we will be having a signing ceremony.'

Donald Trump said Tuesday that he will have a formal ceremony to sign a trade deal with Chinese president Xi Jinping, but didn't disclose anything about a time or place

The presdient spoke to reporters after conducting a series of video chats with members of the U.S. military at his Mar-a-Lago resort club in Palm Beach, Florida

Chinese President Xi Jinping is seen above speaking at an anniversary event marking 20 years since the Portuguese colony of Macau was handed over to Beijing. His government on Monday announced it would lower tariffs on 850 imported products

Trump didn't say when the event would happen—only that the two leaders would do it 'when we get together.'

'But we'll have a quicker signing because we want to get it done,' he predicted. 'The deal is done. It's just being translated right now.'

China's finance ministry said Monday that it will lower import tariffs on more than 850 products beginning January 1, including frozen pork and frozen avocados.

And beginning July 1, 2020, Beijing will also shrink its tariffs on some information technology products.

The spread of African swine fever in China, the world's top pork consumer, has redrawn global food supply chains as the country has had to rely more on imported pork and less on domestic production.

The past three years have seen Donald Trump ramping up a trade war with punishing rounds of new tariffs against China, only to relax them for an extended series of negotiations

Millions of pigs have died from or been culled to control the disease in China, Vietnam and other Asian countries.

China's finance ministry also said it would reduce levies on non-frozen orange juice, new asthma and diabetes drugs, key components and machines for manufacturing integrated circuits, and some logs and paper products.

According to a statement released by the Chinese treasury, goods imported from New Zealand, Peru, Costa Rica, Switzerland, Iceland, Singapore, Australia, South Korea, Georgia, Chile and Pakistan will enjoy even lower levies under re-negotiated free trade agreements.

Oil prices were mostly steady on Monday after three weeks of gains amid optimism the United States and China were close to signing a trade deal.

A so-called phase one deal was announced earlier in December as part of a bid to end the months-long tit-for-tat trade war between the world's two largest economies, which has sent shockwaves through markets and roiled global growth.

The United States is to agree to reduce some tariffs in return for a big increase in purchases by Chinese importers of American farm products, according to the deal that is due to be signed in January.

'We just achieved a breakthrough on the trade deal and we will be signing it very shortly,' Trump said at a Turning Point USA event in Florida on Saturday.

President Trump on Saturday said that the United States and China are likely to sign a new trade agreement 'very shortly'

The easing of tensions has improved business confidence and boosted the outlook for economic growth and energy demand.

'Oil prices will continue to benefit from the positive developments in the U.S.-China trade,' said Stephen Innes, chief Asia market strategist at AxiTrader.

'With a more constructive global macro outlook than at any time in the last year, oil is well-supported by both fundamental factors and sentiment now,' he said.

U.S. drillers may be anticipating higher prices as well and last week increased the number of their oil rigs by the most in a week since February 2018.

Drillers added 18 oil rigs in the week to December 20, bringing the total to 685, the most since November, Baker Hughes, an energy services company, said in its weekly report.

U.S. economic growth nudged up in the third quarter, latest data shows, and the economy appears to have maintained the moderate pace of expansion as the year ended, supported by a strong labor market.