‘Back on track’: Trump, Xi agree to resume trade talks
OSAKA, June 29 ( AFP) - US President Donald Trump said trade negotiations with China were “back on track” after “excellent” talks Saturday with his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping in which Washington reportedly agreed to hold off on new tariffs.
The crunch talks on the damaging trade war between the world's top two economies came on the sidelines of a meeting of the G20 in Japan's Osaka, with all eyes on whether the pair would agree a truce.
“We had a very good meeting with President Xi of China,” Trump said after the talks. “I would say excellent.” “We are right back on track,” he added without confirming any details of any agreement.
The outcome was likely to be seen as a win, with experts cautioning ahead of the meeting that a full agreement was unlikely but a truce that avoided a new tit-fortat round of tariffs would be positive.
Economists say that a lengthy trade war could be crippling for the global economy at a time when headwinds including increased geopolitical tensions and Brexit are blowing hard.
On Friday, the European Union and the South American trade bloc Mercosur sealed a blockbuster trade deal after 20 years of talks, with European Commission President Jean- Claude Juncker hailing it as a “strong message” in support of “rules- based trade.” Trade has proved far from the only contentious issue on the table, with climate change becoming another major sticking point.
An agreement appeared to have been reached there too, with German Chancellor Angela Merkel telling reporters that the final communique would preserve language used at the two past G20 summits.
“We will have a similar text to Argentina. A 19+ 1 declaration,” she said. The so- called 19+ 1 formulation reiterates the commitment of all G20 members except the US to the Paris climate deal.
Trump has dominated the headlines from the summit, and once again caught observers by surprise by tweeting early Saturday that he was open to meeting North Korea's Kim Jong Un while in South Korea this weekend.
“If Chairman Kim of North Korea sees this, I would meet him at the Border/ DMZ just to shake his hand and say Hello(?)!,” he wrote.