The Chinese government said it was working towards an agreement that could end its trade war with the US by March 1, in Beijing’s first comment on the issue since Donald Trump said he had set a 90-day truce before raising tariffs on Chinese imports. In a brief statement on Wednesday attributed to an unidentified spokesperson and posted on its website, China’s commerce ministry said it was “confident” a trade agreement with the US could be reached “within 90 days”.
The comments, however, did nothing to halt a sell-off on Asian and European stock exchanges. US shares had tumbled on Tuesday because of confusion about the outcome of Mr Trump’s weekend meeting with Xi Jinping, his Chinese counterpart, on the sidelines of the G20 leaders meeting in Buenos Aires. In addition to delaying a planned rise in tariffs on roughly half of all Chinese exports to the US for at least three months, Mr Trump said that Beijing had agreed to lower and possibly revoke all tariffs on US-made cars. He also suggested large-scale Chinese purchases of US crops would resume immediately. But statements by senior cabinet officials, including White House economic adviser Larry Kudlow and Treasury secretary Steven Mnuchin, suggested that the apparent concessions by Beijing might not kick in until after an agreement was reached. After their dinner, Mr Trump and Mr Xi did not issue a joint statement.
Instead, both governments issued accounts of the meeting that did not tally, highlighting how difficult it would be for them to reach a comprehensive trade deal. “The [G20] meeting looks to have paused the negative trajectory of the [US-China] bilateral relationship,” said Andrew Polk at Trivium, a Beijing consultancy. “But it did not reverse that trajectory.” Chinese officials have not commented on Mr Trump’s claims that they would reduce tariffs on US-made cars or begin “immediate” purchases of US crops.