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“The White House on Saturday released details about the agreement that U.S. President Donald Trump reached [last] week with Chinese President Xi Jinping to de-escalate their countries’ trade war, including U.S. tariff reductions and a pause in Beijing's new restrictions on rare earth minerals and magnets…
“Here are some of the key elements of the Trump-Xi agreement that was reached in Busan, South Korea:
The left argues that US-China relations need a new strategy.
“Avoiding escalation is not the same as making progress… ‘We are in a better situation than we were yesterday. But we’re in a much worse situation than we were a year ago,’ said [the] chief economist at EY-Parthenon…
“Halving the 20 percent fentanyl tariff means American importers will pay a 47 percent tax on imports from China, down from 57 percent before the talks. But one year ago, they were paying 25 percent…
“Getting China to resume purchases of American soybeans was another must-have for Trump… Xi committed to buying 12 million metric tons of soybeans through January and ordering an additional 25 million metric tons in each of the next three years… But the order was far from unprecedented. Last year, China bought almost 27 million metric tons from the United States.”
David J. Lynch, Washington Post
“In the end, Xi didn’t give up very much. He largely withdrew measures he’d taken in response to Trump’s policies. Most of these were meant to put pressure on the American president by exploiting his political vulnerabilities. China’s ban on U.S. soybeans hit American farmers hard and created a political hassle for Trump, but China is the world’s largest importer of soybeans, and buying a few from American farmers is hardly a major concession…
“Xi’s new rare-earth controls might not have lasted much longer anyway, because they alienated not only the United States but many of China’s trading partners. And how much stock to put into Xi’s promise to clean up the illegal fentanyl trade is hard to know, given his long-standing reluctance to act. In return, Xi got Trump to remove more tariffs and hold off on export controls that could have been harmful to Chinese businesses.”
Michael Schuman, The Atlantic
“When the U.S. confronted Japan’s technological challenge four decades ago, it did not win by building a national industrial ministry or picking corporate champions. It backed competition, welcomed talent, deepened alliances, protected antitrust and unleashed venture capital. America did not beat Japan by becoming Japan. It out-innovated Tokyo. Yet today, remarkably, the U.S. is drifting toward the opposite conclusion…
“Over the past 10 years, Washington’s response to China looks like an effort to beat Beijing by becoming Beijing — restricting trade, directing supply chains, politicizing investment and wielding tariffs as instruments of presidential will. Some targeted de-risking is sensible. But pushed too far, these measures play to China’s strengths and corrode America’s…
“If America makes this a test of centralized control, it is not likely to prevail. China can absorb pain; it can mobilize industry by fiat; it can impose costs without legal constraint. The United States cannot — and should not — govern that way. No democracy wins by imitating autocracy.”
Fareed Zakaria, Washington Post
The right argues that the deal is the best that could have been expected.
The right argues that the deal is the best that could have been expected.
“An essentially unenforceable agreement that will keep the sword of Damocles forged out of rare earths merely dangling over America’s head for another twelve months beats more unpleasant alternatives. And where that topic is concerned, it was probably the best that could be expected…
“The brutal reality is that China’s domination of the production and supply of rare earths and rare earth products is going to last longer than another year and that there is every chance that that sword (in the shape of a revived export ban) will drop, probably sooner rather than later… If anything calls for a revival of the spirit of Operation Warp Speed, this is it.”
The Editors, National Review
“The best news is that Mr. Trump appears to have made no concessions to Chinese designs on Taiwan. The President also went far to praise the U.S.-Japan alliance, and the U.S. will help South Korea build a nuclear submarine. On the other hand, Mr. Trump extracted no concessions regarding China’s continued purchases of Russian oil or support for Russia’s war in Ukraine. Tariff sanctions of the kind mooted in the Senate seem off the table…
“It looks like Mr. Trump’s main goal was to avoid economic disruption going into an election year… Trade wars aren’t easy to win, especially against a peer competitor. China chose to fight back, and Mr. Trump underestimated the leverage China has with its control of global rare-earths minerals. China’s economy may be less resilient overall than America’s, but Mr. Trump and Republicans have to face voters and Mr. Xi doesn’t…
“Another lesson is that fighting a trade war without allies is a mistake. America’s potential friends in an economic confrontation with China include Japan, India, South Korea, the Philippines—and Canada, Britain and the European Union. Mr. Trump has tariffed all of them… The U.S.-China Cold War will continue, and it’s hard to see much that this year’s trade skirmish has accomplished. At best it bought the U.S. some time. If Mr. Trump wants to deter Chinese mercantilism, he needs a new strategy and more allies.”
Editorial Board, Wall Street Journal
“President Donald Trump, our dealmaker in chief, has scored big in Asia… Trump got action on soybeans, rare earths, fentanyl restrictions and maybe even increased oil sales to China… South Korean money will restore the Philadelphia shipyard. Japanese money will support critical new energy infrastructure from gas turbines to small modular nuclear reactors…
“Faster than kids grabbing candy on Halloween, Trump [also] signed production pacts for critical minerals with several nations, including Australia, Malaysia, Vietnam and Japan… The BBC called the rare earth deals, ‘a turning point step in the U.S.-China rivalry.’”
Rebecca Grant, Fox News
