No 25% Tariffs Next January! Trump and Xi Give Some Hopes on Trade War

The long and drawnout dispute on trade war between the US and China may have finally seen some light after the Saturday talk that has been scheduled for the US President Donald Trump and the Chinese Prime Ministry Xi Jinping together with their aids.

The White House Chief Economist states that the talk “went very well” but did not give further details. Suggesting that at least a partial truce may have been reached to reduce trade tension, Chinese state television said “no additional tariffs will be imposed after January 1, and negotiations between the two sides will continue.” Again, no further details have been given.

As for the tariffs, the US will maintain 10% import tariffs on 200 billion dollar of Chinese goods, but will refrain from raising the rate to 25% as planned on January 1, 2019.

In exchange, the US wants an immediate start to talk on Trump’s biggest complaint about Chinese trade practices: intellectual property theft, cyber theft and non-tariff barriers. If there is no progress on structural reform after 90 days, 25% of tariffs will be imposed on Chinese goods.

White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said that China also agree to boost its purchase of agricultural and industrial goods to reduce its trade imbalance with the US.