Hong Kong row unlikely to kill US-China trade deal, Beijing advisers say, but traders fret over superpower rivalry

Name: Hong Kong is no longer autonomous from China, US determines
Uploaded: 2020-06-02T11:29:42.000Z
Duration: 1 min 56 s
Description: Hong Kong is no longer autonomous from China, US determines

Despite rising tensions over Hong Kong’s national security law, China is not minded to walk away from the phase one trade deal, analysts say

Market watchers confused by reports that Beijing ordered embargo on state purchases of US soybeans, even as Chinese traders hoover up Brazilian alternatives

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Sacks of animal feed made from soybeans at the Hopefull Grain and Oil Group in Sanhe, in China's northern Hebei province, an importer of soybeans from the United States. Photo: AFP

Orange WangandFinbarr Bermingham

Published: 7:29pm, 2 Jun 2020Updated: 12:45pm, 3 Jun 2020

Beijing does not yet have “sufficient reasons” to scrap the phase one trade deal with Washington, even as superpower tensions rise over US threats to impose sanctions related to China’s plan to impose a national security law in Hong Kong, analysts said.

Government adviser Huo Jianguo said it was unlikely Beijing had told domestic importers not to buy US soybeans and pork, saying “it would be reckless to suggest that the deal has collapsed”.

“The phase one trade deal was reached after a long process of negotiation. Both sides still need to work with each other to implement the deal and to stabilise China-US trade despite the coronavirus,” said Huo, former head of the Chinese Academy of International Trade and Economic Cooperation, an official think-tank affiliated with the Ministry of Commerce.

Wang Jisi, another government adviser and dean of international relations at Peking University, wrote in an article on Tuesday that “due to reasons such as the coronavirus, it may be difficult to fully implement it, but the two sides should stay true to the principals of the deal”.

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Hong Kong is no longer autonomous from China, US determines

“As we can see, the phase one trade deal reached on January 15 is still being implemented,” Wang wrote in the Global Times, a state-owned newspaper.