OSAKA: US President Donald Trump and his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping struck a trade war ceasefire on Saturday, as Washington vowed to hold off on further tariffs and declared trade negotiations with China “back on track.”The truce that halts damaging trade frictions came in a hotly anticipated meeting between the leaders of the world’s top two economies on the sidelines of the G20 summit. Trump hailed the meeting in the Japanese city of Osaka as “excellent”. “We are right back on track,” he added.Both sides were expected to issue official formal statements later, but Trump confirmed Washington had committed not to impose any new tariffs on Beijing’s exports and that the two sides would continue talks.“At least for the time being,” Washington will not impose new tariffs or remove existing ones, Trump said at a press conference. “We will be continuing to negotiate.”The outcome was likely to be seen as a win, with experts cautioning ahead of the meeting that a full agreement was unlikely but a truce that avoided a new tit-for-tat round of tariffs would be positive. “The base case scenario was met at G20 and while we are no worse for wear, let’s see what the G20 hangover brings,” said Stephen Innes, market analyst at Vanguard Markets.Trump struck a conciliatory tone from his arrival in Japan for the summit, despite saying China’s economy was going “down the tubes” before he set out for Osaka. He said he was ready for a “historic” deal with China as the leaders kicked off their meeting, and Xi told him that dialogue was better than confrontation.In their final statement, the G20 leaders admitted that “most importantly, trade and geopolitical tensions have intensified,” echoing hard-won language from their finance ministers at a meeting earlier this month. There were no immediate details about the closed-door discussions but Trump said they had covered the thorny subject of Chinese telecoms firm Huawei, adding that a solution on this may have to wait until the closing stages of talks.Washington has banned the company over security concerns and China reportedly wanted the restrictions lifted under the terms of any trade truce. The tete-a-tete between the US and Chinese leaders—the first since the last G20 in December—cast a long shadow over this year’s gathering in Osaka.Economists say that a lengthy trade war could be crippling for the global economy at a time when headwinds including increased geopolitical tensions and Brexit are blowing hard.
06-30-2019, 12:30 PM
?Back on track?: Trump, Xi seal trade war truce
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