global-premiun.econoday.com | Updated: 2025-10-30
President Trump describes meeting with China's President Xi as a 12 on a
scale of 1 to 10. Chinese officials give a more muted account. Actual
terms of the agreement do cool the trade war, largely as markets
expected, and the tenor of the meeting suggests the two sides want to
avoid big flareups. It's positive for the global economy relative to the
prospect of a collapse in the talks and escalation of the dispute. On
the other hand, the sense of fragility and unpredictability remains
intact.
After the Trump-Xi talks, the two sides declare a
one-year truce in the trade war as they extend limits on tariffs that
would have expired on Nov. 10. Trump will cut tariffs on China by 10
percent. Big tariffs remain in place, at 47 percent on average. That's
better for trade than higher tariffs but it imposes a heavy burden on US
importers. The US delays for a year plans to expand the number of
Chinese firms subject to limits on access to US technology including
semiconductors. It's not clear what happens with sales of Nvidia's most
sophisticated chips to China but Trump appears to be in a giving mood.
The two leaders plan more meetings where Trump gets to pursue his
improvisational deal-making style.
For its part, Trump says China
pledges "strong" effort to cut flow of chemicals for making fentanyl to
the US, to allow more exports of rare earths to the US, and to resume
purchases of soybeans. The latter can be readily measured. So Trump can
head home and claim a great outcome that will help with key US
constituencies like farmers while US firms retain access to rare earths
for now.
