Presidents Trump and Xi apparently reached an agreement at the recently-concluded G20 meeting that the U. S. would impose no new tariffs at least until February and China would expand its imports from the U. S. The BBC reports:
US President Donald Trump and his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping have agreed to halt new trade tariffs for 90 days to allow for talks, the US says.
At a post-G20 summit meeting in Buenos Aires, Mr Trump agreed not to boost tariffs on $200bn (£157bn) of Chinese goods from 10% to 25% on 1 January.
China will buy a “very substantial” amount of agricultural, industrial and energy products, the US says.
Meanwhile, Beijing says the two sides agreed to open up their markets.
That was precisely the outcome that the editors of the Washington Post proposed. I wonder what their reaction to the news will be.
Meanwhile, I’m skeptical. The Chinese authorities have had 17 years to live up to the commitments they made when they were admitted to the WTO. Will they really do in just three months what they have refused to do for 17 years? Or will they make promises they have no intention of living up to, assuming that Trump will back down?
Update
From the South China Morning Post Chinese state media sources have confirmed the broad outlines of the agreement:
State-run China Daily and Chinese international broadcaster CGTN both said Trump and Xi agreed to not add additional tariffs “after January 1†– when Washington was set to raise the tariff rate on US$200 billion of Chinese imports from 10 per cent to 25 per cent.
Details of trade truce agreement, including what concessions China made, were not immediately available.
It will be interesting to see the details of this agreement if, indeed, there are any. Sounds like the Chinese got something for nothing to me.
Something I’ve mentioned before bears mentioning. China’s culture and political system practically guarantees that their leaders are smarter and tougher than ours. It’s no accident that we get snookered time and time again.
With Trump, the negotiations are never really over, I think the Chinese understand that and continue to play the long game.
However, I read they have agreed to go after Amphetamine and fentanyl producers and exporters. Good news if true.
I am bemused by the commentary on Chinese relations and Trump.
At the beginning of the year; if anyone had told you by the end of the year that there would be tariffs on half of Chinese exports to the US; new laws restricting Chinese exports; they would have laughed at you. 2 months ago they were saying that Cold War II was ineveritable.
Now, any of those outcomes; capitulation to total war may still occur. But I will observe what the Chinese are doing. They found the economy is weaker then they expected, hence the announcement of stimulus measures. They figured the situation is serious enough they wanted friends; hence their attempt to patch up relations with Japan(!).
The Chinese got a 90 day pause; the EU got a pause while negotiations are ongoing.
It’s best to wait and see, and maybe the Chinese think delays are all that should be done; but I bet decision making and decision makers are being scrutinized given the stakes.
Maybe the Chinese system produces really smart and tough leaders; but they did misread Trump and the US badly.