Trump Announces 90-Day Trade War Truce With China

ABC News reports:

President Donald Trump is hitting pause in the escalating trade war with China after a meeting with President Xi Jinping.

Just a day after Trump threatened to bludgeon China by doubling U.S. tariffs on $200 billion worth of goods, the White House said a planned increase from 10 percent to 25 percent on Jan. 1 will not happen.

In exchange, Trump apparently extracted a vague promise from China to “purchase a not yet agreed upon, but very substantial” amount of American goods.

The Week reports:

“It’s an incredible deal,” Trump said of the arrangement on Air Force One on his way home from the G-20 summit in Argentina.

“What I’ll be doing is holding back on tariffs. China will be opening up. China will be getting rid of tariffs. China will be buying massive amounts of products from us.”

From a White House statement:



President Trump has agreed that on January 1, 2019, he will leave the tariffs on $200 billion worth of product at the 10 percent rate, and not raise it to 25 percent at this time.

Both parties agree that they will endeavor to have this transaction completed within the next 90 days. If at the end of this period of time, the parties are unable to reach an agreement, the 10 percent tariffs will be raised to 25 percent.

China will agree to purchase a not yet agreed upon, but very substantial, amount of agricultural, energy, industrial, and other product from the United States to reduce the trade imbalance between our two countries. China has agreed to start purchasing agricultural product from our farmers immediately.