Donald Trump and Xi Jinping agree to a trade truce

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. IT WAS MORE grand bazaar than grand bargain. After months of haggling, bluffing and fist-shaking, America and China appear to have a trade deal.

Meeting in a pokey room at a South Korean airbase on October 30th, President Donald Trump and his counterpart, Xi Jinping, finalised the essentials of an agreement. Their apparent truce reduces the risk of another flare-up, for now. It also allows for the two leaders to visit each other’s countries next year.

Yet the timing of a final deal remains unclear, as does its durability—Mr Trump suggested it could be renegotiated annually. Whether it resolves more fundamental problems in the two powers’ relationship is another matter entirely. In their first meeting in six years, the two leaders agreed to roll back many of the moves that each side had made or threatened in recent weeks.

Both sides confirmed that China would delay new restrictions on the export of rare earths for a year. This suggests America will not slap an extra 100% tariff on Chinese goods from November 1st, as Mr Trump once threatened. China’s commerce ministry said America would also put off, for a year, reciprocal tariffs due to come into force on November 10th, as well as new export controls on subsidiaries that are at least 50%-owned by blacklisted companies.

That would have affected many Chinese firms. Both sides also confirmed that America would halve a 20% tariff imposed earlier over China’s alleged failure to curb exports of chemicals used to make fentanyl, which has claimed many American lives: Mr Trump said China would do more to help stifle that trade. He also said China had resumed purchases of American soyabeans which it stopped in May in a bid to increase pressure on