Trump Agrees Not To Raise Tariff Levels on Chinese Goods; China Agrees To US Purchases. Two Sides To Start Broader Negotiations. (wsj.com)

U.S. President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping agreed Saturday to keep their trade war from escalating with a promise to temporarily halt the imposition of new tariffs [the link may be paywalled; alternative source], as the world's two largest economies negotiate a lasting agreement. China also agreed to further market opening, its foreign minister said. In a statement, White House said the U.S. had agreed not to increase tariffs on Chinese goods to 25% on Jan. 1. From a report: The truce between the U.S. and China emerged after a highly anticipated dinner Saturday between Trump and Xi on the sidelines of the Group of 20 summit in Argentina. The leaders agreed to stop the introduction of new tariffs and intensify their trade talks, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi told reporters hours later in Buenos Aires. The White House called the meeting "highly successful," saying the U.S. will leave existing tariffs on $200 billion of Chinese goods at 10 percent and refrain from raising that rate to 25 percent as planned on Jan. 1. In exchange, the U.S. wants an immediate start to talks on Trump's biggest complaints about Chinese trade practices: intellectual property theft, non-tariff barriers and cyber theft. After 90 days, if there's no progress on structural reform, the U.S. will raise those tariffs to 25 percent, White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said in a statement. China also agreed to boost its purchases of agricultural and industrial goods to reduce its trade imbalance with the U.S., she said.

Comments

They didn't get anything

[SuperKendall]

they got us to back down on tariffs.M

You really don't understand what is going on, do you?

There were never going to be tariffs that high. Trump laid them out as a gamut knowing China had a weaker position then the U,S. if those tariffs were actually implemented. So just as Trump knew would happen, China backed down and is now roughly doing what we want.

This the part of the world Trump knows cold, he knows how to work positive and negative sides of a deal to make the other party do what he wants. That has been clear long before he was president, if anyone had been paying attention this news comes and no surprise at all.

Re:They didn't get anything

[Actually, I do RTFA]

China agrees to buy more US agriculture products.

Right, but they bought less US agricultural products in response to the tariff. So, we're back to zero on agriculture as opposed to being in the negative.

China agrees to make Fentanyl a controlled substance.

Fentanyl was already a controlled substance. in China. In fact, it's just straight up illegal in China. It's legal in the US with a prescription. So they agreed to... not change their laws?

China agrees to negotiate on forced technology transfer.

Ooh, they agreed to discuss things. I mean, yes that's progress. But they did the same discuss the exact same issue under Clinton, W. and Obama. It's what comes out of those talks that matters. And so far we've seen nothing (from any president from Clinton on).

Yeah, China won on everything, for just a 90 day stay, didn't they?

Yeah. So far China's given up nothing other than holding off on their retaliation to our tariffs. In return, they made Trump blink. I'd call that winning.

Re:Why would China agree to anything in good faith

[LynnwoodRooster]

Trump may not make it to the next election...

Short of dying, how would he not make it? The Republicans still control the Senate, and the Senate is where Impeachment starts.

False. Impeachment is what the House does; trial is what the Senate does. The House can impeach President Trump, like they did President Clinton. But unless the Senate votes to convict - it's nothing. A charge, an allegation, a trial - and an acquittal.

Re:Had to be done

[cats-paw]

Itâ(TM)s the 16th time that the Obama administration has taken complaints about China to the WTO. Of the seven cases that have been decided, the U.S. has won all seven.

yeah Obama did nothing...
How this bullshit gets uprated i'll never understand.

Obama has done NOTHING ? None of you moronic moderators could spend 2 minutes searching to verify that he did NOTHING ?

https://www.washingtontimes.co...

And that article came from the Washington Times. Run by a right wing lunatic. Don't believe me check out the headlines at the bottom of the page. So much for fake news.

The democrats will praise this when they figure out if it really helps or not, since Trump and many of the members of his administration lie often and with impunity.

Also too, those tariffs the Trumpbots are rallying around are being paid by you, not by China.

Re:We got talks

[LynnwoodRooster]

they got us to back down on tariffs.

Nope. The 10% in place stays in place. China agreed (finally) to talk about IP theft, trade balance, and drug controls. And for that they get a 90 day stay against an INCREASE from 10% to 25%.

OTOH Trump probably couldn't have done those tariffs anyway. Not without wrecking the economy.

No sign that the tariffs in place since September have done much to the economy or country, so what makes you think you'd have bigger impacts from the additional tariffs on $200 billion in trade? We're talking about tariffs going from $20 billion to $50 billion.

Meanwhile the outsourcing continues, with GM moving 14,000 jobs to Mexico (and rather cleverly blaming it on declining demand for cars vs SUVs while ignoring the new SUV & Truck factories in Mexico).

Yep! And thanks to the President, when GM does move those jobs, they have to pay at least $16/hour for the labor in Mexico, meaning there is a LOT less incentive to move the jobs in the first place - and it will rapidly build up the Mexican economy too.

Nothing change. Everything continues apace. Well, except we borrowed another $1 trillion as a giveaway to Trump's wealthy friends in the top 1%.

Yeah, he's got another $9 trillion to go before he equals his predecessor, who also gave away 17% of the economy to his friends in Big Pharma and Big Healthcare...