BUENOS AIRES, Dec 1 (Reuters) - China and the United States have agreed to halt new tariffs as both nations engage in trade talks with the goal of reaching an agreement within 90 days, the White House said on Saturday after U.S. President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping held high-stakes talks in Argentina.

Trump agreed not to boost tariffs on $200 billion of Chinese goods to 25 percent on Jan. 1 as previously announced, as China agreed to buy an unspecified but “very substantial” amount of agricultural, energy, industrial and other products, the White House said. The White House also said China “is open to approving the previously unapproved Qualcomm Inc NXP deal should it again be presented.”

The White House said that if agreement on trade issues including technology transfer, intellectual property, non-tariff barriers, cyber theft and agriculture have not been reached with China in 90 days that both parties agree that the 10 percent tariffs will be raised to 25 percent. </s> White House: Trump and China's Xi reach 90-day ceasefire agreement on new tariffs to allow trade negotiations. </s> White House: Trump and China's Xi reach 90-day ceasefire agreement on new tariffs to allow trade negotiations

BUENOS AIRES, Argentina (AP) — White House: Trump and China's Xi reach 90-day ceasefire agreement on new tariffs to allow trade negotiations. </s> BUENOS AIRES (Reuters) - China and the United States have agreed to halt additional tariffs as both nations engage in new trade negotiations with the goal of reaching an agreement within 90 days, the White House said on Saturday after President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping held high-stakes talks in Argentina.

Trump agreed not to boost tariffs on $200 billion of Chinese goods to 25 percent on Jan. 1 as previously announced, while Beijing agreed to buy an unspecified but “very substantial” amount of agricultural, energy, industrial and other products, the White House said in a statement. China “is open to approving the previously unapproved” deal for U.S. company Qualcomm Inc (QCOM.O) to acquire Netherlands-based NXP Semiconductors (NXPI.O) “should it again be presented.”

In July, Qualcomm - world’s biggest smartphone-chip maker - walked away from a $44 billion deal to buy NXP Semiconductors after failing to secure Chinese regulatory approval, becoming a high-profile victim of the Sino-U.S. trade dispute.

The White House said that if agreement on trade issues including technology transfer, intellectual property, non-tariff barriers, cyber theft and agriculture has not been reached with China in 90 days that both parties agree that the 10 percent tariffs will be raised to 25 percent.

Trump slapped 10 percent tariffs on $200 billion in Chinese goods in September. China responded by imposing its own round of tariffs. Trump has also threatened to add tariffs on another $267 billion of Chinese imports.

Xi agreed to designate the drug fentanyl as a controlled substance, the White House said. For more than a year, Trump has raised concerns about the synthetic opioid being sent from China to the United States, which is facing an epidemic of opioid-related deaths.

China also agreed to start purchasing agricultural products from U.S. farmers immediately, the White House said.

U.S. companies and consumers are bearing part of the cost of the U.S. tariffs on China by paying higher prices for goods, and many companies have hiked prices on imported goods. At the same time, U.S. farmers have been hurt by reduced Chinese imports of soybeans and other products. </s> Image copyright Reuters Image caption Mr Trump (front right) met Mr Xi (front left) after the G20 summit in Buenos Aires

US President Donald Trump and his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping have agreed to halt new trade tariffs for 90 days to allow for talks, the US says.

At a post-G20 summit meeting in Buenos Aires, Mr Trump agreed not to boost tariffs on $200bn (£157bn) of Chinese goods from 10% to 25% on 1 January.

China will buy a "very substantial" amount of agricultural, industrial and energy products, the US says.

Meanwhile, Beijing says the two sides agreed to open up their markets.

It was the first face-to-face meeting between the two leaders since a trade war erupted earlier this year.

The dispute broke out after Mr Trump complained China was doing nothing to cut its large surplus in bilateral trade.

At the summit in Argentina's capital earlier on Saturday, the G20 leaders agreed a joint declaration that notes divisions over trade but does not criticise protectionism.

What are the details of the US-China accord?

Mr Trump and Mr Xi held a "highly successful meeting", the White House says in a statement.

It says the US tariffs on Chinese goods will remain unchanged for 90 days, but warns: "If at the end of this period of time, the parties are unable to reach an agreement, the 10 percent tariffs will be raised to 25 percent."

Image copyright Getty Images Image caption The US is the biggest export market for Chinese goods

The US says China agreed to "purchase a not yet agreed upon, but very substantial, amount of agricultural, energy, industrial, and other products from the United States to reduce the trade imbalance between our two countries".

Both sides also pledged to "immediately begin negotiations on structural changes with respect to forced technology transfer, intellectual property protection, non-tariff barriers, cyber intrusions and cyber theft", the White House says.

President Trump said earlier this year he wanted to stop the "unfair transfers of American technology and intellectual property to China".

According to the US, China has also signalled it will allow a tie-up between two major semiconductor manufacturers which Chinese regulators have been blocking.

The White House statement said China was "open to approving the previously unapproved Qualcomm-NXP deal".

Qualcomm - the world's biggest chipmaker - had abandoned its $44bn bid for Dutch rival NXP Semiconductors after Chinese opposition.

The US also says Beijing agreed to designate Fentanyl as a controlled substance. The opioid - much of it thought to be made in China - is driving a huge rise in drug addiction in the US.

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi told reporters after the talks that "the principal agreement has effectively prevented further expansion of economic friction between the two countries".

He hailed "new space for win-win co-operation", while Chinese state TV said negotiations would continue.

What's the background to the trade war?

Both sides have imposed tariffs on billions of dollars' worth of goods. The US has hit $250bn of Chinese goods with tariffs since July, and China has retaliated by imposing duties on $110bn of US products.

Mr Trump had also said that if talks in Argentina were unsuccessful, he would carry out a threat to hit the remaining $267bn of annual Chinese exports to the US with tariffs of between 10 and 25%.

US-China trade divisions meant an Asian economic summit earlier this month was unable to agree a formal leaders' statement for the first time in its history.

How did Trump sum up the talks?

Returning from the G20 summit on Air Force One, Mr Trump told reporters "it's an incredible deal" that would have an "incredibly positive impact on farming".

"What I'd be doing is holding back on tariffs. China will be opening up. China will be getting rid of tariffs," Mr Trump said.

Analysis

Stephen McDonell, BBC China correspondent in Beijing

China has pretty much given up nothing in this deal because the future tariffs threatened from the Beijing side were retaliatory in nature and only to be applied if the United State escalated.

For this it has gained a 90-day reprieve, during which time both sides have pledged to ramp up talks.

When China's Foreign Minster Wang Yi spoke to reporters after the meeting he said the two leaders had agreed to open up each other's markets and that this process could lead to the resolution of "legitimate" US concerns.

This was either an acknowledgment that Washington does have legitimate concerns or a way of differentiating those American concerns which are reasonable from those which are not actually "legitimate".

This is not a suspension of the trade war but a suspension of the escalation of the trade war.

Big questions remain about the preparedness of Beijing to allow international access to this enormous market to a level that would satisfy the Trump administration prompting a complete halt in the trade war.

On other issues, the US president announced he would be "formally terminating Nafta [the North American Free Trade Agreement] shortly".

Image copyright EPA Image caption Mr Trump (C) earlier signed a new trade agreement on Friday with his Mexican and Canadian counterparts

This would give lawmakers six months, he said, to approve a new trade deal agreed with his Mexican and Canadian counterparts on Friday or revert to trade rules from before 1994, when Nafta took effect.

He also said he was likely to meet North Korean Leader Kim Jong-un in January or February and three locations for their second meeting were being considered.

Mr Trump added that he would also invite Mr Kim, with whom he has "a good relationship", to the US at some point.

What else happened in Buenos Aires?

French leader Emmanuel Macron told reporters that the World Trade Organization, the body that regulates trade disputes, needed to be modernised.

A senior US official told Reuters that it was the first time that the G20 had recognised that the WTO was "currently falling short of meeting its objectives" and needed reform.

On Friday Mr Trump briefly met Russian President Vladimir Putin on the sidelines of the G20, a Russian official told Reuters.

Earlier the US president said he had postponed a planned press conference "out of respect for the Bush family", following the death of former President George HW Bush, at the age of 94.

Earlier on in the summit, emerging economies denounced protectionism. </s> The United States and China hurtled toward a defining moment in their four-decade-old relationship, with financial markets bracing for the outcome of unusually dramatic trade talks in Washington.

Negotiators met into the evening on Thursday but failed to avert an increase in U.S. tariffs on $200 billion in Chinese products that took effect at 12:01 a.m. Friday. The two sides have agreed to continue negotiations Friday.

Robert E. Lighthizer, the chief U.S. trade negotiator, and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin “met with President Trump to discuss the ongoing trade negotiations with China. The Ambassador and Secretary then had a working dinner with Vice Premier Liu He, and agreed to continue discussions,” the White House said in a statement.

In Beijing, the Commerce Ministry said China “deeply regrets” the decision to increase the tariffs and “will have to take necessary countermeasures.”

“We hope that the U.S. and China will meet each other halfway and make joint efforts to solve the existing problems through cooperation and consultation,” a spokesman said in a statement.

Chinese stock markets, after suffering big losses earlier in the week, actually gained on Friday. The Shanghai Composite Index rose 3.1 percent and the Shenzhen Component Index gained 4 percent.

Because the higher tariffs apply only to goods that leave China on Friday — not shipments already approaching American shores — officials still have time to work out a last-minute solution.

But no matter what happens at the bargaining table, relations between the world’s two largest economies, accounting for roughly 40 percent of global output, appear certain to change.

“They’re really determined to go in a different direction,” said Timothy Stratford, chairman of the American Chamber of Commerce in China and a former U.S. diplomat in Beijing. “The U.S. is recalibrating its policy toward China.”

At stake — along with industrial supply chains supporting millions of American jobs — was the president’s core campaign promise to rebalance the U.S. trading relationship with China in favor of American blue-collar workers. Nearly $660 billion in goods were traded between the two countries last year.

U.S. officials said Trump’s “America First” stance rocked Chinese leaders and halted the erosion of American manufacturing and technology industries by Chinese trade practices.

But the tariff war, which has lasted more than a year, also has claimed numerous casualties. The Dow Jones industrial average is below its level on Jan. 22, 2018, when Trump began the dispute by imposing levies on imported washing machines. The benchmark index fell nearly 450 points Thursday before closing down 139 points, or 0.5 percent.

As China retaliated for subsequent tariff salvos, American farmers and major U.S. industries were caught in the crossfire.

China is the second-largest export market for U.S.-built vehicles. But Chinese customers, who bought roughly 260,000 vehicles from the United States in 2017, bought more than 100,000 fewer last year, according to John Bozzella, president of Global Automakers, an industry group.

“What was the difference? The difference was the [Chinese] tariffs went from 15 to 40 percent,” Bozzella said. “So that’s what’s at stake.”

The politics of 2020 are also an inescapable subplot to the trade drama. In recent days, Trump, writing on Twitter, linked Chinese backsliding on a tentative agreement to Beijing’s desire to wait to make an easier deal with a Democratic president “and thereby continue to ripoff the United States.”

Democratic leaders have publicly supported the president’s hard line. Those statements illustrate the evident bipartisan consensus favoring a tougher stance toward Beijing — but also the political risks for the president of making a deal that a 2020 rival might criticize as soft.

“President Trump has successfully identified Chinese economic behavior that has seriously harmed our economy over time. If U.S.-China talks eventually produce a weak deal, his chances of reelection drop no matter who the Democratic candidate is,” said Derek Scissors, a China expert at the American Enterprise Institute. “If the president does what he insists he will — get a great deal or walk — it will not only boost his reelection prospects, it will boost our economy for years to come.”

Trump said Thursday that he had received “a beautiful letter” from Chinese President Xi Jinping and may speak to him by phone, though he did not say whether that would occur before the scheduled increase in tariffs takes effect.

Trump said Xi’s message was: “Let’s work together. Let’s see if we can get something done.”

Lighthizer began meeting shortly after 5 p.m. Thursday with Liu to continue negotiations aimed at a comprehensive deal.

Those talks had been proceeding smoothly, with U.S. officials predicting a final accord could be agreed to as soon as this week.

But China last weekend angered the president by trying to water down its commitments, according to Lighthizer. Chinese officials balked at specifying in the agreement which laws would be amended to address U.S. concerns over forced technology transfer and intellectual property protection, U.S. officials said.

“We were getting very close to a deal, and then they started to renegotiate the deal. We can’t have that,” the president said, following a White House event on preventing surprise medical bills. “It was their idea to come back.”

Liu, speaking upon his arrival in D.C., acknowledged the recent difficulties. “Much to our regret, we had some problems during our negotiation,” he told Xinhua and CCTV. But, he said, “China believes that raising tariffs is not a solution to the problems.”

Trump said that he expected “a very strong day” at the negotiating table but added that “our alternative is an excellent one,” an apparent reference to the tariff increase.

China had vowed to retaliate “in kind” if the president proceeds with the increase to 25 percent from 10 percent on $200 billion in Chinese products.

Along with Friday’s increase, the president has also threatened to extend tariffs to all $540 billion in annual Chinese imports.

The president had delayed the tariff increase on two earlier occasions in an effort to give negotiators time to strike a bargain that would include massive purchases of American products and structural changes in China’s state-led economy.

After more than five months of accelerated diplomacy, following a Trump-Xi dinner in December at the Group of 20 summit in Buenos Aires, several core issues remain to be resolved.

Chinese negotiators insist that all the tariffs the United States imposed last year be eliminated in any deal.

But the president wants to keep some or all of the import taxes in place as leverage to encourage Chinese compliance. The administration is wary of repeating what it sees as the mistakes of earlier Republican and Democratic administrations: reaching agreements with China that lacked ironclad enforcement mechanisms.

Those tariffs are being paid by U.S. importers and, ultimately, by consumers. Yet the president frequently boasts about the revenue the federal government receives from higher tariffs.

Though most economists say such a broadening of the trade conflict would inflict serious damage on both economies, the president insists his tariffs helped the U.S. economy grow at a 3.2 percent annual rate in the first quarter.

“I’m different than a lot of people. . . . I happen to think that tariffs for our country are very valuable,” Trump said.

Many business leaders, who support the president’s efforts to combat Chinese trade practices, are growing weary of the costs of his preferred tool. Tariffs will cost Polaris Industries Inc. — a Medina, Minn., maker of snowmobiles and motorcycles — roughly $200 million annually if the increase to 25 percent takes effect, said Scott Wine, the company’s chief executive.

The company has 9,000 employees in the U.S. But its main competitor assembles its vehicles in Mexico, escaping the U.S. tariffs on Chinese goods that hit Polaris’s imported wire harnesses and machined parts, he said.

“We’re losing market share right now,” said Wine, who added he would be forced to consider shifting production to Mexico if the tariffs become permanent.

Chinese retaliation could take the trans-Pacific relationship into potentially dangerous territory, according to Chris Krueger, an analyst with Cowen’s Washington Research Group.

During the past year of tit-for-tat tariff exchanges, China has imposed tariffs on all but $10 billion of its purchases from the United States.

To keep pace with Trump’s planned escalation, Beijing may use other weapons, including state-backed boycotts of American products, tighter customs inspections and intensified tax audits of U.S. companies, Krueger said.

The economic and political fallout from such steps “are a lot harder to predict and prone to accident,” he added.

Robert Costa in Washington and Anna Fifield in Beijing contributed to this report. </s> Reacting to a new round of Chinese tariffs imposed on U.S. goods, President Donald Trump said Friday, August 23 he “hereby ordered” U.S. companies to “start looking for an alternative to China” – and he pledged to respond formally within hours, USA Today reports.

In a series of tweets posted before he flies to France for the G-7 meeting of world leaders – where the global economy and trade issues will take center stage – Trump blasted China’s latest action and vowed to announce retaliatory moves soon.

Markets plunged Friday as it became clear the trade war between Washington and Beijing was escalating. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was off by more than 500 points in midday trading, following a series of dramatic declines last week.

Trump said he would respond to the latest tariffs “this afternoon.”

“Our great American companies are hereby ordered to immediately start looking for an alternative to China, including bringing our companies HOME and making your products in the USA,” Trump wrote.

“We don’t need China and, frankly, would be far better off without them,” he added.

White House officials did not respond to questions about what actions, specifically, Trump was referring to as pundits opined on social media that the president cannot easily order companies to pursue other markets. His posts came hours after Chinese officials announced in state media they will impose tariffs ranging from 5% to 10% on an additional $75 billion in U.S. goods, further increasing trade tensions. </s> President Donald Trump at a state dinner at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing on November 9. Pool/Thomas Peter via Associated Press

WASHINGTON — US President Donald Trump will meet with his top trade advisers on Thursday to decide whether to activate threatened tariffs on billions of dollars in Chinese goods, a senior Trump administration official said.

Trump on Friday is due to unveil revisions to his initial tariff list targeting $50 billion of Chinese goods. People familiar with the revisions said the list would be slightly smaller than the original, with some goods deleted and others added, particularly in the technology sector.

Another administration official said that a draft document showed that the new list would still be close to $50 billion, with about 1,300 product categories, but that both the dollar amount and the quantity of products were still subject to change.

It remains unclear when Trump would activate the tariffs if he decides to do so. Several industry lobbyists told Reuters they expected the move to come as early as Friday, with publication of a Federal Register notice, or it could be put off until next week.

Under the 1974 trade law that Trump invoked to pursue a tariff investigation into China's intellectual-property practices, he could delay the activation by 30 days. He can also delay the tariffs by another 180 days if the US Trade Representative's office finds that negotiations with China are yielding progress.

"The president's trade team has recommended tariffs. If there are not tariffs, it will be because the president has decided that he's not ready to implement tariffs," a person familiar with the administration's deliberations told Reuters.

But that recommendation came before Trump's trip late last week to Canada for the G7 leaders summit and to Singapore for the nuclear summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un. Trump arrived in Washington early on Wednesday morning.

Trump told Fox News in an interview aired on Wednesday that he was "very strongly clamping down on trade" with China.

Asked how strong, Trump said: "Well, I think very strongly. I mean you'll see over the next couple of weeks. They understand what we are doing."

Trump did not specifically mention the tariffs and added that he had "a very good relationship with President Xi (Jinping) of China."

The move toward activating US tariffs on Chinese goods follows negotiations between US and Chinese officials centered on increased purchases by Beijing of American farm and energy commodities and cutting the US trade deficit with China.

Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross earlier this month met with Chinese officials in Beijing and brought back a Chinese proposal to purchase about $70 billion worth of additional commodities and manufactured goods. But that offer has not been accepted by Trump, people familiar with the matter said.

The administration's trade hawks, including US Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer and the White House trade and manufacturing adviser Peter Navarro, have been pushing for a tougher approach to the negotiations to address US allegations that China has misappropriated American intellectual property through joint-venture requirements, state-backed acquisitions of US technology firms, and outright theft. </s> Beijing vows retaliation after US increases tariffs on $200 billion of imports

(ABC NEWS) – After the working dinner between U.S. and Chinese negotiators in Washington ended after only 90 minutes and without a last-minute deal, President Donald Trump’s threat to raise tariffs on $200 billion worth of Chinese goods went into effect at 12:01 a.m. Friday.

The response from China to the U.S. increasing levies on imported goods to 25% from 10% was immediate. At least on paper.

“China deeply regrets that it will have to take necessary countermeasures,” the Chinese Ministry of Commerce said in a statement released two minutes after the new tariffs took effect.

But Beijing has yet to announce exactly how it will retaliate.

The increased tariffs are a dramatic escalation in the year-long trade dispute between the world’s two largest economies, which had enjoyed an extended ceasefire since late November, when President Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping met on the sidelines of the G20 summit in Argentina.

That ceasefire was intended to create a window for negotiators to finalize a deal.

A final agreement was expected soon, at least until the U.S. side accused the Chinese of backtracking on commitments… angering President Trump, who issued a Twitter threat to raise tariffs by the end of this week.

Bloomberg News reported that in the buildup to the midnight deadline, the MSCI AC World Index lost more than $2.1 trillion in value, but market reactions across Asia was mixed on Friday.

Aside from Japan’s Nikkei, which closed slightly down, about minus .3%, most markets were trending slightly up. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index closed up almost 1%.

The Shanghai Composite even rallied in the afternoon session after an initial dip, closing up 3.1%.

But, according to a Bloomberg News report, Chinese state-backed funds, often dubbed the “National Team,” were active in buying up domestic Chinese stocks after the tariffs went into effect, propping up the market.

The Chinese statement added that talks between the U.S. and China are ongoing and there was hope the two sides could still “work together to resolve existing issues.”

China’s top trade negotiator, Vice Premier Liu He, is expected to reconvene with his U.S. counterpart, Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer, and Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin on Friday morning in Washington for a second day of talks.

The impact of the tariff hike unlikely will be felt for another few weeks. The increased taxes only apply to shipments leaving China after midday Friday and don’t affect shipments already in transit.

Because it usually takes about three weeks for container ships to travel from Chinese ports to destinations in America, negotiators still could reach an agreement before shipments arrive.
The White House announces that the United States and China agree to halt new trade tariffs for 90 days to allow for talks.