US China trade war plans a truce

China’s trade delegation tentatively plans to travel to Washington for four days from January 13 for the signing of the phase one deal that would herald a truce in the costly trade war between the world’s two largest economies; a source briefed on the matter has told the South China Morning Post.

 

Led by Vice-Premier Liu He, the delegation had originally planned to set off earlier in the month but had to change their travel schedule after US President Donald Trump sent a tweet on New Year’s Eve claiming that he would sign the deal with “high representatives” from Beijing on January 15 in the White House.

 

While the two sides had been expected to wrap up their phase one negotiations by January, the Chinese side had not expected Trump to make a unilateral announcement about the date, or to say that he would be willing to sign the deal -even if President Xi Jinping was not available.

 

After a full afternoon’s discussion, the Chinese side decided to revise their plan to accommodate Trump, and will return to China on January 16, although Washington and Beijing have yet to officially confirm Liu’s visit.

The back-and-forth in nailing down details of the signing ceremony reflects the differences in how Beijing and Washington view the deal.

 

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