Trump Announces Trade ‘Cease-Fire’ With China, Postponing New Tariffs As Beijing Agrees To Buy More U.S. Farm Products

By JonDougherty

POTUS Donald Trump on Saturday announced that after talks with Chinese President Xi Jinping he would not, for now, impose new tariffs on an additional $300 billion worth of imports, which would have effectively covered everything Beijing exports to the U.S.

In exchange, POTUS said Xi had agreed that China would purchase more U.S. agricultural products, though he didn’t provide any details about the agreement.

 

“We had a very good meeting with President Xi of China, excellent, I would say excellent, as good as it was going to be,” the president told reporters following an 80-minute meeting at the G-20 in Osaka, Japan. “We discussed a lot of things and we’re right back on track and we’ll see what happens.

POTUS said he would not lift tariffs that are currently in place, only that he would hold off on issuing new ones.

“We’re holding back on tariffs and they’re going to buy farm products,” he said without details. “We’re going to give them a list of things we’d like them to buy…if we make a deal, it will be a very historic event.”

He added that he wasn’t in any hurry to make a final deal: “I want to get it right.”

Trump also said he would allow U.S. companies to sell components to Huawei, the world’s largest telecom gear manufacturer, so long as those components would not jeopardize U.S. national security.

Earlier, the administration banned U.S. companies from doing business with Huawei, which is leading development of 5G technology, over concerns China was using the firm for espionage purposes.

“I like our companies selling things to other people, so I allowed that to happen,” Trump said. “We’re talking about equipment where there’s no great national security problem with it.”

The U.S. had also been lobbying other countries around the world not to do business with Huawei for the same reason, especially NATO allies.

POTUS noted that he hadn’t yet decided how best to proceed with Huawei, adding that he would be huddling with advisers next week to determine the best path forward.

Meanwhile, U.S. chipmakers were happy. “We are encouraged the talks are restarting and additional tariffs are on hold and we look forward to getting more detail on the president’s remarks on Huawei,” John Neuffer, president of the U.S. Semiconductor Association, said in a statement.

The president also said he would wait until the conclusion of trade talks with China to decide the best path forward regarding Huawei over long-term.

“Huawei is a complicated situation,” Trump said. “We’re leaving Huawei toward the end. We’ll see where we go with a trade agreement.”

U.S. business leaders were optimistic, but cautious.

“Returning to negotiations is good news for the business community and breathes some much needed certainty into a slowly deteriorating relationship,” said Jacob Parker, a vice-president of China operations at the U.S.-China Business Council. But “now comes the hard work of finding consensus on the most difficult issues in the relationship, but with a commitment from the top we’re hopeful this will put the two sides on a sustained path to resolution.”

This article originally appeared at The National Sentinel and was republished with permission.