Trump-Xi G20 Meeting to Help Prevent Trade War Escalation - Business Lobby

The results of the most recent meeting between US President Donald Trump and his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping allow to delay possible further escalation of a trade war between the two countries and to find a long-term solution for better bilateral relations, vice president of China operations at the US-China Business Council, Jacob Parker said.

"The US business community is pleased that the two governments have agreed to begin doing the hard work of resolving the substantive issues that American companies have faced in China, and to postpone the imminent tariff increases that had been on the horizon. This outcome delays further escalation and gets both sides back on track to find a sustainable long-term solution to the challenges in the relationship," Jacob Parker told Sputnik.

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Meanwhile, hard work to resolve the trade conflict only begins, he noted.

"It is unreasonable to assume that all challenges in the relationship can be resolved in 90 days. Both sides should instead aim for substantive, measurable and commercially meaningful outcomes and a long-term engagement framework," the official said.

The coming 90 days will at least allow to set targets for further talks, Parker concluded.

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On Saturday, Trump and Xi held a meeting on the G20 summit's sidelines. Washington announced that Trump agreed to suspend plans of raising the tariffs on $200 billion worth of Chinese products from 10 percent to 25 percent starting from January 1, 2019, in order to pave the way for trade talks with Beijing, but warned that if the trade talks do not succeed within the next 90 days, the tariffs will be raised to 25 percent as planned. Meanwhile, the Xinhua news agency also reported, citing the Chinese Foreign Ministry, that the two countries had agreed to expedite talks toward eliminating all additional tariffs.

The two nations have been locked in the trade war since March when Trump imposed tariffs on metal imports from several countries, including US longtime allies.

Tensions rose in May when the US administration said it would levy extra taxes on $50 billion worth of Chinese goods, bringing that figure up to $250 billion over the next few months. China retaliated with tariffs on $110 billion of US imports.