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US reaches trade war truce with China after Trump-Xi talks

US President Donald Trump (R) and Chinese President Xi Jinping during their bilateral meeting at the G20 Summit on Saturday, December 1, 2018. (Photo by AFP)

The United States and China have agreed to temporarily stop their trade war following high-stakes talks between President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping, the White House says.

Based on their agreement, Washington will not increase new tariffs on $200 billion worth of Chinese goods from 10 percent to 25 percent in January.

"If at the end of this period of time, the parties are unable to reach an agreement, the 10 percent tariffs will be raised to 25 percent," a White House statement said Saturday after dinner talks between Trump and Xi on the sidelines of a G20 summit in Buenos Aires.

In the statement, Trump, who has imposed a slew of tariffs on Chinese goods and accused Beijing of meddling in US elections, called his meeting with Xi "amazing and productive."

Meanwhile, "China will agree to purchase a not yet agreed upon, but very substantial, amount of agricultural, energy, industrial, and other product from the United States to reduce the trade imbalance between our two countries," according to the statement.

"China has agreed to start purchasing agricultural product from our farmers immediately," it added.

China earlier confirmed the outlines of the arrangement, which will give the two sides a chance to settle their differences in the dispute.

Trump initiated what is effectively a trade war with China in April, when he first imposed unusually heavy tariffs on imports from the Asian country.

Beijing has imposed retaliatory tariffs of $50 billion on US products in retaliation to earlier tariffs by the US.

The US imported nearly $500 billion worth of products from China last year while exporting about $130 billion in American goods to the country in the same period.


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