Reports published ahead of Saturday’s meeting between President Trump and China’s President Xi say that the U.S. and China have agreed to a truce in the trade war between the two countries. Their meeting comes at the G-20 Summit in Osaka, Japan.
While details of the agreement have not yet been released, Politico and the South China Morning Post report that the truce would suspend the announced imposition of 25 percent tariffs on a further $300 billion of Chinese imports into the country. News releases are expected to come from both sides following the summit.
A similar truce arrangement accompanied the last meeting between the two presidents at the G-20 Summit in Buenos Aires, Argentina, in December 2018. That suspension came with a 90-day deadline, although reports suggest this truce may come with a six-month extension.
The $300 billion in Chinese imports constitutes the fourth list of products facing tariffs in the ongoing trade dispute with China. On June 24, the office of the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR), Ambassador Lighthizer, published a notice on the exclusion process for list three. According to the notice, a new USTR portal will open on June 30 for companies to submit their exclusion requests for list three. The portal will be open until September 30. Any exclusions granted will be retroactive to September 2018 when the duties were first put in place.
The exclusion will be good for a period of one year. Last week, during testimony before the House Ways & Means Committee, Ambassador Lighthizer said that current exclusions would not be automatically granted a renewal, but that a process would be provided if the tariffs were to continue.
