A trade truce between the United States and China is set to expire on Tuesday if the two countries do not extend the time for talks or reach a last-minute agreement that would prevent President Trump from reimposing sharply higher tariffs on Chinese imports and the Chinese retaliating against American goods.
Top economic officials have been working to finalize a provisional agreement to extend the truce that was reached during meetings in Sweden last month. After the talks, Mr. Trump’s advisers were optimistic that the president would sign off on the arrangement, but thus far he has not publicly granted China an extension. If the tariffs snap back into place, it would escalate a trade war between the world’s two largest economies that rattled global markets earlier this year.
With the clock ticking, Mr. Trump on Sunday night called on China to quadruple its purchases of American soybeans and noted that doing so would help reduce America’s trade deficit with China.
“China is worried about its shortage of soybeans,” Mr. Trump wrote on Truth Social in a message directed to Xi Jinping, China’s leader. “Our great farmers produce the most robust soybeans.”
The United States and China have held three formal rounds of trade talks this year, after Mr. Trump started ratcheting up tariffs on Chinese imports. U.S. tariffs on Chinese goods ultimately reached 145 percent, and China curbed the exports of rare earth magnets that are critical to American manufacturers. In an effort to de-escalate the tension, a 90-day truce was reached under which the U.S. reduced its China tariffs to 30 percent while China lowered its tariffs on U.S. goods to 10 percent and agreed to export the magnets.
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