By Alex Ho

Investing.com - The Chinese yuan fell on Wednesday in Asia amid fresh trade uncertainties. While not a directional driver, the People’s Bank of China added $58 billion into the country’s banking system.

The USD/CNY pair lost 0.2% to 6.8943 by 12:01 AM ET (04:01 GMT).

Citing people familiar with the matter, Bloomberg reported that existing U.S. tariffs on Chinese goods are likely to stay in place until after the American presidential election in November.

“These tariffs will stay in place until there’s a phase two. If the president gets a phase two quickly, he’ll consider releasing tariffs as part of phase two,” Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin told reporters on Tuesday. “If not, there won’t be any tariff relief. So it has nothing to do with the election or anything else. There’s no secret agreements.”

The Bloomberg report came just hours before the signing of the phase one trade deal, suggesting that tensions between China and the U.S. remained high.

Meanwhile, the People’s Bank of China said in a statement that it added 300 billion yuan ($44 billion) through the medium-term lending facility at 3.25%. It also injected 100 billion yuan via open market operations.

The U.S. Dollar Index Futures that tracks the greenback against a basket of other currencies was little changed at 97.080.

In other news, Bank of Japan Governor Haruhiko Kuroda said in a speech on Wednesday that the central bank would not hesitate to ease further in order to achieve its 2% inflation target.

The USD/JPY slipped 0.1% to 109.88.

The AUD/USD pair and the NZD/USD pair were both near flat.

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