NANTONG: A worker using a crane to lift a roll of steel at a shipyard in Nantong in China's eastern Jiangsu province. Washington and Beijing have agreed to abandon any trade war and back off from imposing tariffs on each other.-AFP

WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump yesterday said China had pledged to buy “massive amounts” of American agricultural products but gave no other details about planned commitments from Beijing following US-China trade talks last week.

“Fair Trade, plus, with China will happen!” Trump wrote in a series of posts on Twitter that came a day after US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said a trade war between the world’s largest economies was “on hold.”

“China has agreed to buy massive amounts of ADDITIONAL Farm/Agricultural Products - would be one of the best things to happen to our farmers in many years!” Trump wrote. “On China, Barriers and Tariffs to come down for first time,” he added.

Trump offered no specifics about what steps US and Chinese officials had agreed to after talks on Thursday and Friday in Washington. The negotiations followed earlier meetings in Beijing aimed at diffusing the trade spat spurred by the Trump administration’s threat to slap tariffs on Chinese goods, and a counterproposal by China to levy US products.

Over the weekend, Beijing and Washington pledged to keep talking about how China could import more energy and agricultural commodities from the United States to narrow the $335 billion annual US goods and services trade deficit with China.

Meanwhile, US Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross will travel to China next week to help finalize a trade agreement after Washington and Beijing reached an initial framework last week, US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said yesterday.

“Secretary Ross has to go over and turn that into a signed piece of paper with companies,” Mnuchin told reporters at the White House. “This is not a government-to-government purchase order, but we have an agreement with them as to what will be executed.”

China relieved

China yesterday praised a significant dialing back of trade tension with the United States, with the government saying agreement was in the interests of both countries while state media trumpeted what it saw as China’s refusal to surrender.

The cooling of tension elicited mixed reactions from US business leaders dealing with China, with some happy to see the prospect of damaging tariffs fade, while others said it would be difficult for Washington to rebuild momentum to address what they see as troubling Chinese policies. A trade war was “on hold” after the world’s largest economies agreed to drop their tariff threats while they work on a wider trade agreement, US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said on Sunday.

The previous day, Beijing and Washington said they would keep talking about measures under which China would import more energy and agricultural commodities from the United States to narrow the $335 billion annual US goods and services trade deficit with China.

Speaking at a daily briefing, Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Lu Kang said both countries had clearly recognized that the reaching of a consensus was good for all.

“China has never hoped for any tensions between China and the United States, in the trade or other arenas,” Lu said. But Chinese media was also quick to point out how the country had successfully defended its interests. Mei Xinyu, a commerce ministry researcher, wrote on the WeChat account of the overseas edition of the ruling Communist Party’s official People’s Daily that the agreement preserved

China’s right to develop its economy as it sees fit, including moving up the value chain. The deal also focused on China’s “positive position” to increase imports rather than a “negative position” of getting it to cut exports, Mei said.

‘quiet glee’

The official China Daily said everyone could heave a sigh of relief at the ratcheting down of the rhetoric, and cited China’s chief negotiator, Vice Premier Liu He, as saying the talks had proved to be “positive, pragmatic, constructive and productive”. “Despite all the pressure, China didn’t ‘fold’, as US

President Donald Trump observed. Instead, it stood firm and continually expressed its willingness to talk,” the English-language newspaper said in an editorial.

“That the US finally shared this willingness, means the two sides have successfully averted the head-on confrontation that at one point seemed inevitable”, it said. During an initial round of talks this month in Beijing, the United States demanded that China reduce its trade surplus by $200 billion. No dollar figure was cited in the countries’ joint statement on Saturday.

Some in US business groups who had been pushing for tougher measures to pressure China to ease long-standing market barriers on US companies expressed disappointment. James Zimmerman, a Beijing-based lawyer and a former chairman of the American Chamber of Commerce in China, said the

Trump administration’s move to walk back its threatened trade actions was premature, and a “lost opportunity” for American companies, workers and consumers. - Agencies