After the Thanksgiving weekend, US President Donald Trump admitted on Monday what markets had feared all along. He claimed that his move to sign laws empowering the US to impose sanctions on Chinese and Hong Kong officials deemed responsible for violating human rights of protesters in Hong Kong could potentially have worsened the already fraught trade relations with China.

While addressing the media on Monday, Trump stated that the new law “doesn’t make it better, but we’ll see what happens”. While he didn’t offer any further clarification on when he expected the phase one trade deal to be completed, two US officials expressed optimism that there was still a possibility that it could be signed before the end of this year.

The phase one trade deal was announced following high level talks between trade officials of the US and China in Washington back in October, but there have been no concrete updates on when the deal would be ready for signing so far. After Trump signed into law legislations backing human rights of anti-government protesters in Hong Kong, China has vowed to retaliate against the US for interfering in its internal matters.

This latest development is said to have stalled the progress in negotiations towards a partial trade deal for now. The next tariff hikes of 15% are expected to be implemented on December 15 and will impact around $156 billion worth of Chinese imports.