Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said Wednesday he was “cautiously hopeful” the U.S. would reach a trade resolution with China soon, saying the two sides had made progress on reaching an agreement, including establishing an enforcement office.

Speaking at the IMF Spring Meeting in Washington D.C., Mnuchin said that he and U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer are “literally working around the clock” to hammer out Washington’s differences with Beijing, and characterized a Tuesday evening call with Chinese Vice Premier Liu He as “lasting a very long period of time.”

“There still are some very significant issues,” Mnuchin said, adding that any agreement would mark the most “significant change in the economic relationship between China and the U.S.”

The countries are hammering out a seven-chapter document that addresses everything from purchase agreements to contentious issues involving intellectual property protection. Mnuchin said the chapter addressing currency manipulation was “pretty much done,” characterizing it as one of the strongest currency agreements the U.S. had reached, with enforcement mechanisms in place. He did not elaborate on the tools the two countries planned to implement.

“The most important issue is that there are G20 commitments, whether it’s China or other countries,” he said. “We expect people will honor those commitments not to devalue their currency for competitive purposes.”

No timeline for a deal

Mnuchin refused to address a timeline for any deal, although President Donald Trump has hinted that an agreement could be reached by the end of this month. In addition to addressing the trade deficit with China, which rose to a record $419.2 billion last year, the administration has pressed Beijing for structural changes to its economy, which include improving market access to foreign companies, eliminating the practice of forced tech transfers, and curbing government subsidies to state owned companies.

The Chinese have pressed the U.S. to roll back tariffs on $250 billion worth of Chinese goods, in exchange for concessions, something Mnuchin did not address.

His comments come days after the IMF downgraded its global growth outlook to the lowest since the financial crisis, citing the possible collapse of trade negotiations between the U.S. and China among the events that skewed risk to the downside.

Mnuchin downplayed the headwinds trade negotiations represent to the domestic economy, saying the U.S. would continue to outperform the rest of the world.

He added that any bilateral agreement with Beijing would also help lift the growing middle class in China.

“This is a very, very detailed agreement that has dealt with more issues than have ever been dealt with before in the relationship of the two largest economies,” he said.

Akiko Fujita is an anchor and reporter for Yahoo Finance. Follow her on Twitter at @AkikoFujita

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