A mini-truce between America and China has investors feeling hopeful
But there remain plenty of reasons for pessimismOct 12th 2019COULD IT be a ceasefire at last? After months of rising tension and threats of ever higher tariffs, American and Chinese negotiators agreed to a mini-truce on October 11th. In exchange for America holding off on a tariff increase planned for October 15th, the Chinese government offered to buy American agricultural products. China also pledged to do more to liberalise its financial services sector, tighten up its intellectual property rules and be more transparent with its interventions in currency markets. President Donald Trump described the talks as “a love fest”.The details of the agreement are still unclear. Chinese state media did not even describe it as a deal, instead saying that substantial progress had been made in talks. Still, a ceasefire is better than higher tariffs and it might produce real gains. More transparency for China’s opaque currency regime, for example, would not hurt. The same day, in state-run media, China announced a timetable for liberalising the financial services sector, which should benefit the Chinese economy as well as foreign companies.Choose us for news analysis that respects your time and intelligenceSubscribe to The EconomistWe filter out the noise of the daily news cycle and analyse the trends that matterWe give you rigorous, deeply researched and fact-checked journalism. That’s why Americans named us their most trusted news source in 2017Available wherever you are—in print, digital and, uniquely, in audio, fully narrated by professional broadcastersThis website adheres to all nine of NewsGuard‘s standards of credibility and transparency.ORContinue reading this articleRegister with an email address