US-China trade war on hold for now, but wait until Donald Trump has finished with the G7 and Kim Jong-un
Washington is set to release details of its latest tariffs on Chinese imports on Friday, and that is likely to set off a whole new round of fireworks, observer says
US agricultural negotiators were “pleasantly surprised” at what China offered during the latest trade talks, but an American business leader in Beijing said all bets could be off when Washington releases its new tariff list next week.
During the visit of US Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross last weekend, China offered several “structural adjustments” to reduce barriers to agricultural imports as part of a package deal to increase its purchases of American goods, said Jake Parker, vice-president for China operations at the US-China Business Council.
The structural changes related to such things as the approval process for imported biotech crops, the paperwork for sanitary and phytosanitary certification, and the terms of tariff-rate quotas, he said.
“The agricultural negotiators left pleasantly surprised at the pace and extent to which China was willing to move on liberalisation in some areas,” he told the South China Morning Post.
However, while US President Donald Trump has been quiet on the US-China trade row in recent days – his focus has been on the G7 meeting in Canada and his upcoming summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un in Singapore on Tuesday – that could all change once those two distractions are behind him.