Donald Trump says China trade talks are ‘back on track’

President lauds meeting with Xi Jinping at G20 with reports that US will not impose new tariffs

From the G20 courtesy of the FT ...

Donald Trump said talks with China were “back on track” after he said he held an “excellent” meeting with Chinese president Xi Jinping at the G20 summit in Osaka.

“We had a very good meeting with President Xi of China. Excellent, I would say excellent. As good as it was going to be,” the US president said. “We discussed a lot of things and we’re right back on track. And we’ll see what happens but we had a really good meeting.”

Xinhua, the Chinese state-run news agency, said the US had agreed not to impose new tariffs on Chinese goods while the two sides resumed talks after negotiations broke down last month.

G20 leaders have been watching closely to see if the leaders of the world’s two biggest economies could reach an agreement to end a bitter trade war that has escalated over the past year. The two sides were approaching a deal when talks collapsed at the last minute in early May, prompting both sides to blame the other.

Mr Trump is expected to provide some details about any deal at press conference at 3.30pm local time.

Separately, Mr Trump on Saturday extended an invitation to meet North Korean Korean leader Kim Jong Un at the demilitarised zone that divides the Korean peninsula when he visits South Korea after the G20.

“After some very important meetings, including my meeting with President Xi of China, I will be leaving Japan for South Korea (with President Moon),” Mr Trump tweeted. “While there, if Chairman Kim of North Korea sees this, I would meet him at the Border/DMZ just to shake his hand and say Hello(?)!

The White House is making preparations for a meeting by drafting an official invitation which North Korea requested following the tweet, according to a person familiar with the situation.

If Mr Trump meets Mr Kim, it would be the third meeting between the two leaders, following their landmark first summit in Singapore last year and a second meeting in Hanoi in February.

The truce follows a similar pattern to last year when the two leaders met at the G20 summit in Buenos Aires in an attempt to find a resolution to a dispute that has seen the imposition of tit-for-tat tariffs on hundreds of billions of dollars of Chinese and American exports.

Trade has been the main focus of this year’s two-day summit. Mr Xi on Saturday accused rich countries of engaging in protectionism that was “destroying the global trade order”. Shinzo Abe, the Japanese prime minister, recognised that globalisation had sparked a “sharp confrontation” between countries, but stressed that governments should ensure that all trade measures complied with World Trade Organization rules.

Speaking in front of reporters at the start of his meeting with the Chinese president, Mr Trump said the leaders had become friends that he believed they would be able to forge an agreement.

“As you know, we’ve had an excellent relationship, but we want to do something that will even it up with respect to trade,” Mr Trump said. “I think it’s something that’s actually very easy to do.”

“I actually think that we were very close and then . . . something happened where it slipped a little bit, and now we’re getting a little bit closer,” Mr Trump added in public remarks to Mr Xi.

Whilst I can understand - and am similarly frustrated by our apparent inability to sign bankable SPAs - all is far from lost (despite much of the unwarranted and ignorant criticism posted on HC).

As I assume everyone wants GV and team to succeed, instead of spending ridiculous amounts of time providing a running commentary, historic rundown of past comments and criticising management) why not be a little more constructive and share objective suggestions with GV and team! I’m sure they’d appreciate your expertise!

Still very long and very much of the view LNG’s fortunes will change for the better once the trade war is resolved ... (whatever our resident HC experts suggest)

Best of luck to everyone.

Timbo