Trump’s move was welcomed by business groups that have been hurt by multiple rounds of tariffs on Chinese goods and who feared greater damage if he proceeded with plans to tax a further $300 billion in imports.
But lawmakers in both parties objected to his decision to allow at least some U.S. companies to continue supplying Huawei, despite last month’s Commerce Department order to halt sales to the company because it imperiled U.S. national security.
“If President Trump has agreed to reverse recent sanctions against Huawei he has made a catastrophic mistake,” Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., said Saturday morning. “It will destroy the credibility of his administration’s warnings about the threat posed by the company, no one will ever again take them seriously.”
The president defended the change saying it would not “impact our National Security.” He also said he was “in no hurry” to reach a deal with Beijing, “but things look very good!”
During a news conference following his meeting with Xi, the president provided scant details of the plan to resume negotiations that collapsed six weeks ago amid U.S. complaints of Chinese backsliding.
Trump announced no date for his chief negotiator, U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer, to meet with Chinese Vice Premier Liu He, a Xi confidant who helms Beijing’s bargaining team. The president also set no new deadline for reaching a deal.
In exchange for flexibility on Huawei, Trump said China had agreed to large purchases of U.S. farm goods starting “almost immediately.” But he disclosed no specifics and Chinese officials did not confirm the offer.
China’s Foreign Ministry quoted Xi as telling Trump that any “negotiations should be equal and show mutual respect.”
Fresh trade talks could have major economic consequences for both countries and Trump’s reelection hopes. The U.S. president already has had to allocate $28 billion in aid to quell an outcry from farmers who say they are trade war victims.
“They put a pause on further escalation and took the temperature down a little bit,” said Myron Brilliant, executive vice president of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.
The president’s concessions followed more than a month of acrimony between the world’s two largest economies. Trump expressed hope that the measures would lead to a “very historic” trade deal with China, though major obstacles remain.
“This is a temporary truce,” said Ely Ratner, who was a national security aide to former Vice President Joe Biden. “They’re not on the way to resolving the fundamental issues at the center of the dispute.”
“Both sides are just playing for time,” said Scott Kennedy, a China adviser at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. “I don’t see this as any kind of breakthrough.”
Business groups welcomed the results of the Trump-Xi dialogue. John Neuffer, president of the Semiconductor Industry Association, called the president’s decision “good news for the semiconductor industry, the overall tech sector and the world’s two largest economies.”
The two leaders began negotiating last December at the G-20 summit in Buenos Aires but talks faltered in early May. In response, Trump more than doubled tariffs on $200 billion in Chinese goods and threatened to hit an additional $300 billion in imports with new levies.
Nine days after the impasse, the Commerce Department prohibited U.S. companies from doing business with Huawei without a government license. U.S. officials have said the company has links to the Chinese government and its equipment could be used to disrupt or spy on American communications.
Before the president’s comments, U.S. companies would have been prevented from using Huawei gear in their next-generation 5G networks, a regulatory effort likely to be disrupted by Saturday’s about-face.
In Washington, critics were quick to pounce. Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., said. “If President Trump backs off, as it appears he is doing, it will dramatically undercut our ability to change China’s unfair trades practices,” he said.
Asked by a reporter to characterize the U.S. relationship with China, Trump said: “I think we’re going to be strategic partners. I think we can help each other.”
The trade talks likely will resume against a more confrontational backdrop as public opinion sours on China, the Post says. In a survey for the Chicago Council on Global Affairs, 63% of the public called China a U.S. adversary, up from 49% last year.
Leaving the current tariffs in place means imposing substantial taxes on trade, and will both alter and inhibit that commerce—and could change its longer term structure, experts note. These are trends that producers should watch closely as the promised talks resume, Washington Insider believes.