TRADE “DETENTE” CONTINUED
The two sides in May announced a truce in their trade dispute after talks in Geneva, Switzerland, agreeing to a 90-day period to allow further talks.
They met again in Stockholm, Sweden, in late July, and US negotiators returned to Washington with a recommendation that Trump extend the deadline.
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has said repeatedly that the triple-digit import duties both sides slapped on each other’s goods in the spring were untenable and had essentially imposed a trade embargo between the world’s two largest economies.
“It wouldn’t be a Trump-style negotiation if it didn’t go right down to the wire,” said Kelly Ann Shaw, a senior White House trade official during Trump’s first term and now with law firm Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld.
She said Trump had likely pressed China for further concessions before agreeing to the extension.
Trump pushed for additional concessions on Sunday, urging China to quadruple its soybean purchases, although analysts questioned the feasibility of any such deal.
Trump did not repeat the demand on Monday.
“The whole reason for the 90-day pause in the first place was to lay the groundwork for broader negotiations and there’s been a lot of noise about everything from soybeans to export controls to excess capacity over the weekend,” Shaw said.
Ryan Majerus, a former US trade official now with the King & Spalding law firm, said the news would give both sides more time to work through longstanding trade concerns.
“This will undoubtedly lower anxiety on both sides as talks continue, and as the US and China work toward a framework deal in the fall,” he said.
Imports from China early this year had surged to beat Trump’s tariffs, Commerce Department data showed last week.
The US trade deficit with China tumbled by roughly a third in June to US$9.5 billion, its narrowest since February 2004.
Over five consecutive months of declines, the US trade gap with China has narrowed by US$22.2 billion – a 70 per cent reduction from a year earlier.
No formal announcement was immediately released. The Treasury Department and US Trade Representative’s Office did not respond to requests for comment.
Washington has also been pressing Beijing to stop buying Russian oil, with Trump threatening to impose secondary tariffs on China.
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