With no clear message or discernible strategy from the president on the China trade talks, what had seemed just a few days ago like it could be a shot in the arm to the U. S. economy, by Tuesday only added to the list of grim uncertainties facing investors.
It’s been just three days since President Donald Trump announced that U. S.-China relations had taken a “big leap forward” after an “extraordinary” three hour meeting in Buenos Aires.
But in that time, a steady stream of vague and conflicting messages from White House economic advisers has tamped down early optimism among U. S. investors that what happened in Argentina represented a breakthrough in U. S. trade relations with its largest trading partner.
As the Dow plunged nearly 800 points on Tuesday, driven largely by a sell-off in bank stocks and signs in the bond market of a looming economic slowdown, the White House appeared helpless to staunch the bleeding.
With no clear message or discernible strategy from the president on the China trade talks, what had seemed just a few days ago like it could be a shot in the arm to the U. S. economy, by Tuesday only added to the grim uncertainty facing investors.
In a break from the usual protocol for top-level trade talks, the U. S. and China did not release a joint statement following Saturday’s meeting, leaving observers to interpret for themselves what the talks accomplished based on two very different readouts.
According to the Trump White House, China agreed to “immediately” begin buying more U. S. agricultural products. The two countries also agreed, the White House said, to a 90-day timeframe for negotiations on major issues like intellectual property theft and forced technology transfer. Trump also tweeted on Saturday that China had agreed to eliminate its automobile tariffs on U. S. cars, which it recently raised to 40 percent in retaliation for U. S. tariffs on Chinese goods.
But Beijing’s readout reportedly did not mention China agreeing to any of these provisions. And a foreign ministry spokesman would not even confirm the most basic parameters of the talks, namely, that the truce would last for 90 days.
