Talks to resume as Trump, Xi call truce in tariff war

OSAKA, Japan — President Trump and President Xi Jinping of China agreed Saturday to resume trade talks after a sevenweek breakdown, averting for now an escalation of their multibilliondollar tariff war that has roiled global markets and threatened the future of the world’s two largest economies.

The agreement, brokered during more than an hour of discussion between the leaders, did not by itself signal any major breakthrough in resolving the fundamental conflict. But it represented a temporary ceasefire to give negotiators another chance to forge a permanent accord governing the vast flow of goods and services between the two nations.

“We had a very, very good meeting with China,” Trump told reporters after his session with Xi on the sidelines of the annual summit meeting of the Group of 20 nations in Osaka, Japan. “The negotiations are continuing.” Trump promised to hold off on his threat to slap new 25% tariffs on $300 billion in Chinese imports, and he agreed to lift some restrictions on Huawei, the Chinese technology giant at the center of a dispute between the nations.

In exchange, he said, China agreed to buy a “tremendous amount” of American food and agricultural products. “We will give them a list of things we want them to buy,” he said.

The latest pause in the trade war seemed to be a repeat of what happened at the last G20 summit meeting, in December in Buenos Aires. There, Trump and Xi also met and agreed to postpone further tariffs pending negotiations and more soybean purchases by Beijing. The question is whether the new opening will yield any better result.

The “two sides are highly harmonious, and the areas of cooperation are broad,” Xi said, according to the People’s Daily, an official Chinese news outlet.

Peter Baker and Keith Bradsher are New York Times writers.