It's A Truce On Trade War For Now Between China And US

By Manik Mehta NEW YORK, Dec 4 (Bernama) -- The closely watched meeting between United States President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping at a dinner on the sideline of the G-20 (Group of Twenty) summit in Buenos Aires, Argentina, has produced what US experts call a “truce” and not a long-term resolution of the ongoing trade war between the two countries amid a tit-for-tat imposition of tariffs by each side on the other’s exports. A copy of the statement sent by President Trump’s Press Secretary to this correspondent says that both Trump and Xi had a “highly successful meeting” between themselves and their most-senior representatives in Buenos Aires. To underscore this point, Xi had offered to designate Fentanyl as a controlled substance, which meant that people selling this substance to the US would face China’s maximum penalty under its laws. Fentanyl has been the cause of a growing number of deaths among Americans using the substance. Trump, on his part, agreed that on January 1, 2019 the US would leave tariffs on US$200 billion worth of exports into the US at 10 per cent tariff rate and not raise it to 25 per cent at this time. China has also shown its willingness to buy an not-quantified – but very substantial – volume of agricultural, energy, industrial and other products from the US aimed at reducing the trade imbalance between the two countries. China agreed to immediately start purchasing agricultural products from US farmers. In the spirit of this “truce”, both Trump and Xi agreed to immediately begin negotiations on structural changes with respect to forced technology transfer, intellectual property protection, non-tariff barriers, cyber intrusions and cyber theft, services and agriculture. China’s non-compliance on these issues have outraged many Americans and bedevilled relations between the two countries. Both sides have now agreed to work towards completing the negotiation process within the next 90 days. “If at the end of this period of time, the parties are unable to reach an agreement, the 10 per cent tariffs will be raised to 25 per cent,” the press secretary said in the statement. Trump, who has been pushing for the denuclearisation of the Korean Peninsula, will work together with Xi, along with North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un, towards creating a nuclear-free Korean Peninsula. Expressing “his friendship and respect for Chairman Kim”, Trump reckoned with a meeting with the North Korean leader in January or February 2019. Meanwhile, on board the Air Force One, on its return to the US, President Trump told the on-board journalists that it was an “incredible deal” (with Xi) and that “if it happens, it goes down as one of the largest deals ever made”, with an “incredibly positive impact” on agriculture, industrial products, computers, etc. China, Trump averred, will be getting rid of tariffs. “You know, China right now has major trade barriers – they’re major tariffs – and also major non-tariff barriers, which are brutal. China will be getting rid of many of them." Trump also pointed out that Xi had agreed to reconsider the US chipmaker Qualcomm deal which China had rejected few months back. The US$44 billion deal, involving the takeover of Dutch counterpart NXP had been denied regulatory approval by China. The companies had waited for nearly two years for their deal to clear global regulatory hurdles. The takeover, approved in eight other jurisdictions, including the European Union and South Korea, since it was announced in October 2016, had failed to surmount the China hurdle. -- BERNAMA