Copyright scmp
A “fantastic deal” that US President Donald Trump has pledged to strike with China would be dialling the clock back to April 1 – before the launch of his massive tariffs, a top US business representative has said. “I think things are pretty obvious at this point, of what’s gonna happen,” said Sean Stein, president of the US-China Business Council, at the Bund Summit in Shanghai on Saturday. “The tariff pause of 90 days will be extended without a doubt.” Beyond that, there are only three things Trump would ask from the Chinese side: a deal on fentanyl, the resumption of soybean purchases, and rare earths, Stein said during a panel discussion. “But the problem of all of this is, all of those things are only necessary because of the trade war which he launched,” Stein said, adding that, in Trump’s eyes, a fantastic deal would be “sort of rolling the clock back” to the status quo of pre-Liberation Day tariffs. Stein’s remarks came as China and the US – respectively led by Chinese Vice-Premier He Lifeng and US Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent – began their fifth round of trade negotiations in Kuala Lumpur on Saturday. And the broad discussions were said to have brought both sides “to a spot where the leaders will have a productive meeting”, according to post-meeting comments by US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer on Sunday. He was talking about paving the way for a meeting between Trump and President Xi Jinping, which the US side has said will take place in South Korea on Thursday. China has yet to confirm the meeting between the two leaders. After negotiations concluded in Malaysia on Sunday, Beijing said in a statement that the two sides had reached a preliminary consensus on issues related to export controls, a tariff-truce extension, port fees, agricultural trade, and fentanyl-related tariffs and cooperation. “Both sides agreed to further finalise the specific details and complete their respective approval procedures,” the statement said. Up until almost this point in Trump 2.0, [China] retaliated – mostly reciprocal with a little bit of escalation Sean Stein, US-China Business Council president In comments to reporters en route to Asia, Trump said he may talk with Xi about a decline in Chinese purchases of Russian oil, following US sanctions on two major oil companies, according to Reuters. The flare-up in the trade spat between the world’s two largest economies began earlier this month amid a barrage of economic sanctions, export controls and Trump’s threat of a 100 per cent tariff hike, despite months of negotiations and the extension of a temporary “tariff truce” since May. Trump said earlier this week that he expected to “end up having a fantastic deal with China” after meeting with Xi in South Korea. Compared with the period during Trump’s first administration, China’s negotiating strategy has evolved, Stein said. “In Trump 1.0, China’s negotiating strategy [was] the US acts, and China reacts in a reciprocal way. Up until almost this point in Trump 2.0, it retaliated – mostly reciprocal with a little bit of escalation,” he said, adding that Beijing now wants to demonstrate it has agency too. “So, briefly, if the Trump administration was escalating to de-escalate, we’re seeing China is escalating to educate.”
