China and the US came to a limited agreement over the weekend concerning the ongoing trade war between the two countries. Each country, however, presented the agreement in a different way. These differences in interpretation or presentation are important, as massive portions of the economy rely on the negotiations that will continue as the 90 day postponement deadline looms. One of the differences include the White House statement that Xi would consider approving the multi-billion Qualcomm-NXP deal that was previously rejected by Chinese regulators. Chinese officials did not mention this item in their news conference. Another is that the White House announced an agreement by Trump and Xi to begin negotiations on Chinese policies and practices regarding forced technology transfers, non-tariff barriers, cyber theft, intellectual property protections. Chinese officials merely stated combined efforts to ease imbalances in trade. The White House also gave a specific timeframe for the talks, at which time the existing 10 percent tariffs on a set amount of Chinese goods would increase to 25%. Chinese officials gave no timeframe. Lastly, the White House announced that China has agreed to purchase a “very substantial” amount of U.S. goods from the energy, industrial, agricultural, and other industries. China has not announced that they will purchase specific goods nor indicated when such a potential purchasing plan would begin.
Source: Factbox: Contrasting Chinese, U.S. statements on trade war agreement | Reuters
