US President Donald Trump said that he hoped the relationship between the US and China would be “stronger and better than ever before” ahead of a second day of talks with Chinese President Xi Jinping in Beijing, the Wall Street Journal reported on Thursday.
“They look forward to trade and doing business. It’s going to be totally reciprocal on our behalf,” said Trump in opening remarks during his meeting with Chinese leader.
Trump added in his Truth Social post that Xi had congratulated him on “so many tremendous successes,” including the US’ relationship with Venezuela, its job market as well as its military.
On Iran, Trump said that Xi offered help to resolve the conflict and pledged not to provide military equipment to Iran. Xi also wants to see the critical Strait of Hormuz reopened.
Market reaction
As of writing, the AUD/USD pair is up 0.01% on the day at 0.7220.
US-China Trade War FAQs
Generally speaking, a trade war is an economic conflict between two or more countries due to extreme protectionism on one end. It implies the creation of trade barriers, such as tariffs, which result in counter-barriers, escalating import costs, and hence the cost of living.
An economic conflict between the United States (US) and China began early in 2018, when President Donald Trump set trade barriers on China, claiming unfair commercial practices and intellectual property theft from the Asian giant. China took retaliatory action, imposing tariffs on multiple US goods, such as automobiles and soybeans. Tensions escalated until the two countries signed the US-China Phase One trade deal in January 2020. The agreement required structural reforms and other changes to China’s economic and trade regime and pretended to restore stability and trust between the two nations. However, the Coronavirus pandemic took the focus out of the conflict. Yet, it is worth mentioning that President Joe Biden, who took office after Trump, kept tariffs in place and even added some additional levies.
The return of Donald Trump to the White House as the 47th US President has sparked a fresh wave of tensions between the two countries. During the 2024 election campaign, Trump pledged to impose 60% tariffs on China once he returned to office, which he did on January 20, 2025. With Trump back, the US-China trade war is meant to resume where it was left, with tit-for-tat policies affecting the global economic landscape amid disruptions in global supply chains, resulting in a reduction in spending, particularly investment, and directly feeding into the Consumer Price Index inflation.
