To much fanfare last week, the United States and China reached some partial agreements on their long drawn-out trade talks.
But with such an abrupt end to the intense trade war which raged for more than 15-months,… now analysts are asking which one got the better side of the deal: Washington or Beijing?
Won Jung-hwan reports.
Wasting little time after agreeing to a phase-one deal that could mean the end of Washington's trade dispute with Beijing,… U.S. President Donald Trump was giving himself a triumphant slap on the back in front of his supporters at a campaign rally.
Trump was especially happy that China had agreed to buy U.S. agricultural goods,… particularly soybeans and pork, to an annual value of between 40-billion and 50-billion U.S. dollars,... saying it was more than double the levels seen before the trade war began.
"But today I was with Vice Premier of China, one of the most powerful men in the world, highly respected. And we made that significant toward a new deal, it's getting papered now."
However, some news outlets took a more skeptical angle.
The Financial Times said little had been given away by Beijing, but China had been successful in holding off tariff increases on 250-billion dollars worth of Chinese goods.
Bloomberg pointed out that the deal Beijing agreed to last Friday was similar to the amount of agricultural goods China imported from the U.S. a couple of years ago.
The announcement also did not include many details, including on intellectual property protection, exchange rate mechanisms and financial services,… which all added fuel to the heightened trade tensions between the two countries.
Because of these variables that remain,… the U.S. has suspended the increase in tariffs rather than completely withdrawing them.
"The second half of September, that is scheduled to be effect in December 15th, and the President has not made final decision on that, but there is plenty of time to make that decision."
Chinese state news outlets have welcomed the phase-one agreement.
The fact the country endured more than 450-days locked in a trade dispute with the world's number one economic superpower and came out the other side relatively unscathed added to the positivity.
As President Trump said on the day the phase-one deal was announced that it could take up to five weeks to get the agreement written up and it probably won't be ready until Trump meets his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping at the APEC leaders' meeting in Chile in November.
This delay leaves open the possibility of the deal being rewritten or potentially falling apart completely in the meantime.
With so many unknowns, analysts say it's too early to say who came away smelling sweeter following the down and dirty trade war that gripped the world for well over a year.
Won Jung-hwan, Arirang News.
