[ad_1]
Overnight came the conclusion of an unexpectedly short meeting between Presidents Trump and Xi Jinping.
Despite its brevity, it appears that there was some progress in US-China trade negotiations. But perhaps not quite as much as President Trump had signalled earlier this week.
The US and China reached a one-year agreement on rare earths and critical minerals, with Mr Trump claiming the matter was ‘settled’.
China would resume its purchases of US soyabeans and would ‘work very hard to stop fentanyl’. As a result, Washington will cut fentanyl-related tariffs to 10% and lower overall duties on Chinese goods to 47%. The two sides also announced that they would ‘work together’ to end the war in Ukraine and to sort out issues over semiconductors.
There was no word on either the future of Taiwan or TikTok. In other words, all the difficult stuff was kicked into the long grass, which means it will eventually re-emerge as a problem in the future. The main meat of the deal looks as if it will be reviewed on an annual basis. Yes, Mr Trump got concessions on rare earths, critical minerals, and magnets. But there’s still a hefty tariff on US imports of Chinese goods. So, an honest summary of this historic meeting: underwhelming.
[ad_2]
Source link
