Trump, Xi agree to truce in U.S.-China trade war

U.S. President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping reached the second truce in which they agreed to resume trade negotiations and hold off on a new round of tariffs after sitting down with each other for 80 minutes at the G20 Summit held in Osaka, Japan on Saturday.

“We agreed today that we would continue the negotiations,” said Trump after the bilateral meeting with Xi. “We agreed I would not be putting tariffs on 325 billion U.S. dollars that I would have the ability to put on if I wanted.” According to Trump, China has agreed to buy a "tremendous amount" of agricultural products immediately. "We are going to give them lists of things we want them to buy," Trump said. Back on Dec. 1 last year, the two heads of state had agreed to delay an additional tariff increase and negotiate for 90 days at the G20 summit in Buenos Aires, Argentina.

Trump hinted on easing sanctions on Chinese communication company Huawei on Saturday. “U.S. companies can sell their equipment to Huawei. We’re talking about equipment where there’s no great national security problem with it,” the U.S. president said. “We want to have Chinese students [go] to our great schools and great universities.”

Trump and Xi had also an unofficial meeting the previous day, but the bilateral summit exceptionally lasted for 80 minutes on Saturday. "My Plan B is that if we don't make a deal, I will tariff. I am in no hurry, but things look very good,” Trump wrote in a post on Twitter. “The quality of the transaction is far more important to me than speed.” According to the Foreign Ministry of China, Xi emphasized that he would spare no effort to safeguard the benefits of China with regard to China’s sovereignty and dignity.

The G20 Summit in Osaka closed with the “Osaka Declaration,” which emphasized the importance of fair trade. The heads of the G20 member states announced that the global economy was ridden with downside risks and they would take various actions to handle the risks. Opposition to protectionism was excluded from the announcement this time as well due to the opposition of the U.S., following last year’s summit in Argentina.


parky@donga.com