US President Donald Trump claimed the US was winning its trade war with China after a temporary truce was reached with Chinese Premier Xi Jinping at the G20 summit in Osaka, Japan.
According to Bloomberg, Trump made the comments during a post-G20 summit trip to South Korea, where he also reportedly accused the Federal Reserve of not helping the US with the trade war.
“Despite that,” Trump said, “we’re winning, and we’re winning big because we have created an economy that is second to none.”
The leaders of virtually every country that I met at the G-20 congratulated me on our great economy. Many countries are having difficulties on that score. We have the best economy anywhere in the world, with GREAT & UNLIMITED potential looking into the future!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 30, 2019
Few details have been released by The White House, but the truce does mean the US will not now impose the additional tariffs it planned to set on US$300 billion worth of Chinese imports.
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Furthermore, US companies will now be allowed to do limited business with Chinese telecommunications giant Huawei, which Trump has previously accused of being a national security threat.
The firm was banned from the US’ 5G network in April 2019 as part of an executive order; its partial re-admittance has drawn criticism in Washington, with the Trump’s fellow Republican Marco Rubio describing the decision as “catastrophic”.
If President Trump has in fact bargained away the recent restrictions on #Huawei, then we will have to get those restrictions put back in place through legislation.
And it will pass with a large veto proof majority.
— Marco Rubio (@marcorubio) June 29, 2019
In return, Beijing will reportedly buy large amounts of agricultural goods from the US, but reports in China suggest that this is only a wish on Trump’s part and that no commitment has been made.
The truce does open the way for renewed trade talks between the two largest economies on Earth. Negotiations for a new tariff-free trade deal collapsed in May 2019 and Trump consequently vowed to increase the tariffs from their current level of 10% to 25%.
Since the trade war was initiated in early 2017, approximately $400 billion has been placed US-China goods and it has had significant ripple effects across the global supply chain.
