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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.
He didn't cave. Current tariffs remain in place. Only the increase to 25% in January has been suspended pending further negotiations on IP theft and non-tariff barriers to trade. Overall, this is a pretty good outcome, and hopefully remaining issues can be resolved, and the existing tariffs can be lifted as well.
TFA is paywalled. Here is an alternative article.
well if nothing happens in 90 days he can raise tariffs ...nothing lost...
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.
And with this news, the Democrats will water down this achievement while fuming in their "war rooms" at the same time.
That, I can guarantee.
since we let them buy up our hog farms. That was just nuts, BTW. Who the hell lets a hostile foreign power buy it's food supply? Seriously, who does that?
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So far, it's just discussion.
The common theme of President Trump throughout his presidency is this: he's a chaotic leader. You cannot question that he is an effective leader -- just look at the success he has at his rallies. I'm not saying you have to like the guy or his methods, but you have to at least acknowledge that he is successful at inspiring people to follow him. And he does it by being chaotic.
And his approach to China is no different. Just as he tells reporters about meeting Russia at the G20 summit ("Maybe I will, maybe I won't."), or about Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman's involvement in Khashoggi's death ("Maybe he knew, maybe he didn't."), Trump is consistently ambiguous and aloof regarding his position with practically anything. What he says to China today can still change tomorrow. There are no guarantees, only promises. And China is as good at keeping their promises as Trump is.
So, while that chaos does give us leverage against China (what little we have), I predict it's still going to get us nowhere in the end. While Trump may momentarily have the upper hand, he has a grievous fault that will work against it: he's narcissistic. It's impossible for him to negotiate for what's good for the United States. He negotiates for himself, aiming for outcomes that give him clout (i.e. USMCA, but don't you dare call it "New NAFTA") and economic gain (i.e. tax cuts). He doesn't give a damn about the soybean farmers and every other working class American suffering while this deal is getting negotiated and worked out. Nor will he care about who benefits or doesn't in the end, so long as he gets his.
All he did was get them to agree to talk.
Not true. China agreed to immediately start buying more American goods, especially farm products. Higher soybean prices in America, and cheaper tofu in China. Win-win.
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.
Browsing at +1 - no ACs, I ignore their posts. So refreshing!
Why?? The rest of the West has made it quite clear they despise America in general and Trump specifically. Why should we do anything for you ungrateful jerks? You've been very ugly about it, like an ex-wife trashing her former husband. Really hateful and nobody doubts that you were dead serious.
Make your own deals; stand on your own two feet. Daddy Trump is kicking you out of the basement and into the real world. It's for your own good. Learn to do things on your own.
Shutting down free speech with violence isn't fighting fascism. It IS fascism!
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.
Absolute statements are never true
China's been willing to talk all along. The Trump Administration couldn't find anything like a coherent policy position from themselves. And anything they have floated amounted to telling China to stop advancing to a super-power, which went over very well with the Chinese, as you can expect.
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...
Browsing at +1 - no ACs, I ignore their posts. So refreshing!
China agrees to buy more US agriculture products. China agrees to make Fentanyl a controlled substance. China agrees to negotiate on forced technology transfer. Yeah, China won on everything, for just a 90 day stay, didn't they?
Browsing at +1 - no ACs, I ignore their posts. So refreshing!
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.
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?
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. 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.
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