US President Trump met General Secretary Xi of China at the G20 meeting in Osaka, Japan. Subsequently Trump announced not to impose additional tariffs in exchange for China’s increased purchases of US agricultural goods, [mysteriously the Chinese statement of the meeting did not mention China’s increased purchases...].
Just to be clear, the brilliantly negotiated, triumphant outcome for Trump is thus simply status quo that existed along before Trump started his bilateral trade wars (e.g: no tariffs and China buying US Ag products). Well, no, one thing is different: The US will provide China a shopping list of what it is supposed to buy from the US. Whoever came up with this unusual idea really distinguished himself/herself. Of course the Chinese will only buy what they need so they are humoring Trumps list — but what is the purpose of Trump going around threatening countries with forced shopping lists of US products? Is that how the Trump or the US wants to “win” the trade war?
