President’s long, post-G-20 dinner with his Chinese counterpart ‘amazing and productive’
The world’s two largest economies have agreed to a small truce in their escalating trade war after a meeting between presidents Donald Trump and Xi Jinping following the G-20 summit.
“This was an amazing and productive meeting with unlimited possibilities for both the United States and China,” Trump said in a statement released as he flew back to the United States from Argentina on Air Force One. “It is my great honor to be working with President Xi.”
Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One as he flew back to Washington, “It’s an incredible deal. What I’ll be doing is holding back on tariffs. China will be opening up, China will be getting rid of tariffs. China will be buying massive amounts of products from us.”
Trump agreed that he will leave the tariffs on $200 billion worth of Chinese products at the 10 percent rate, and not raise it to 25 percent, for now, as he has threatened to do come Jan. 1, according to a White House statement.
“China will agree to purchase a not yet agreed upon, but very substantial, amount of agricultural, energy, industrial and other product from the United States to reduce the trade imbalance between our two countries,” said White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders. “China has agreed to start purchasing agricultural product from our farmers immediately.”
Trump and Xi also “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, according to the White House statement. “Both parties agree that they will endeavor to have this transaction completed within the next 90 days. If at the end of this period of time, the parties are unable to reach an agreement, the 10 percent tariffs will be raised to 25 percent.”
Some of the details were echoed by Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi, who confirmed that both countries will step up negotiations.
The news is likely to bring cheer Monday to global financial markets, which have been sensitive to the escalating trade battles between China and the United States.
Fentanyl designation
At the dinner, Xi also agreed to designate fentanyl as a controlled substance, meaning that people selling the powerful opioid to the United States will be subject to China’s maximum penalty under the law.
