Result of Trump-Xi Dinner: A 90-Day Truce

Trade war seems to be on hiatus
By Newser Editors and Wire Services
Posted Dec 2, 2018 6:00 AM CST
Result of Trump-Xi Dinner: A 90-Day Truce
China's President Xi Jinping, center, and members of his official delegation, listen to President Trump speak during their bilateral meeting at the G20 Summit, Saturday, Dec. 1, 2018 in Buenos Aires, Argentina.   (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)

The US and China reached a 90-day ceasefire in a trade dispute that has rattled financial markets and threatened world economic growth, per the AP. The breakthrough came after a dinner meeting Saturday between President Trump and Chinese leader Xi Jinping at the Group of 20 summit in Buenos Aires. Trump agreed to hold off on plans to raise tariffs Jan. 1 on $200 billion in Chinese goods. The Chinese agreed to buy a "not yet agreed upon, but very substantial amount of agricultural, energy, industrial," and other products from the United States to reduce America's huge trade deficit with China, the White House said.

The truce, reached after a dinner of more than two hours, buys time for the two countries to work out their differences in a dispute over Beijing's drive to supplant US technological dominance. "It's an incredible deal," Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One. "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." In a long-sought concession to the US, China agreed to label fentanyl, the deadly synthetic opioid responsible for tens of thousands of American drug deaths annually, as a controlled substance. And Beijing agreed to reconsider a takeover by US chipmaker Qualcomm that it had previously blocked. (On the dinner menu: grilled sirloin.)

(More trade war stories.)

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