Dr. Akhtar Gulfam Editor-in-Chief Daily Dawn, Director News Dawn TV
London: A significant breakthrough has emerged in the ongoing trade tensions between the US and China, where the two countries have agreed on a framework that aims to ease export restrictions and maintain a mutual tariff ceasefire.
According to a report by the news agency ‘Reuters’, US and Chinese officials said on Tuesday that they have agreed on a framework that aims to put the trade war between the two countries back on track and end Beijing’s restrictions on rare earth exports, but there was no clear indication of a permanent solution to the long-standing trade differences.
At the end of two days of talks in London, US Commerce Secretary Howard Latnick told reporters that the framework agreement provides a solid foundation for the agreement reached in Geneva last month, which aimed to ease tariffs between the two countries, as these rates had reached triple digits and were at a catastrophic level.
However, the Geneva agreement was undermined when China maintained restrictions on rare earth exports.
In response, the Trump administration also imposed export controls on China, under which exports of semiconductor design software, aircraft and other products were stopped.
Latnick said that some recent export restrictions by the US would be lifted under the agreement reached in London, but he did not provide further details at the end of the talks (4 am Pakistan time).
He said that we have agreed on a framework to implement the Geneva agreement and the talks between the two presidents.
According to Litnik, the idea is that we will go back and talk to President Trump to get his approval, while Chinese officials will talk to President Xi Jinping to get his approval, and if that approval is given, we will start implementing the framework.
Chinese Vice Minister of Commerce Li Qinggang said in a separate briefing that a trade framework has been agreed in principle, which will now be presented to the US and Chinese leadership.
The agreement may save the Geneva agreement from a trade war, but it will do little to resolve major differences such as Trump’s unilateral tariff policy and long-standing US objections to China’s state-sponsored export-led economic model.
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