The U.S. and China trade war has left a lot of companies in both countries worried. The leaders of the world's largest economies met on the sidelines of G20 summit on Saturday and things are off to a great start. President Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping have decided to cool things off between the countries' trade battle.
During an 80-minute lunch meeting between Trump and Xi, both world leaders touched upon various topics, including Huawei trade in the United States. Prior to the meeting, the Trump administration was going to impose approximately $300 billion in tariffs. But that decision has been pushed off indefinitely.
The meeting brings a relief to a lot of companies in the U.S. and to Huawei, which is now permitted to buy equipment from American companies. Since Huawei is on the so-called entity list, the US companies were not allowed to supply technology to the Chinese telecommunications giant without government approval. The latest decision changes that, as long as it does not involve equipment that threatens national security, Trump said.
Trump's decision to allow American companies to sell to Huawei and deciding against imposing additional tariffs was inspired by China's willingness to buy large amounts of US farm goods. According to SCMP, China will be given a list of goods it needs to buy from the US. The truce between the greatest economies in the world is certainly a welcoming change in the tense year-long dispute that triggered instability in the market and hindered global growth.
But that really struck is the fact that Trump is holding on to the Huawei issue until the very end of trade talks between US and China. It proves the matter is important to China and the U.S. could leverage a great deal during negotiations.
"I like our companies selling things to others ... very complex things. These are not things easy to make ... our companies were very upset, but we are allowing them. So if it is not a national security issue, we are allowing them to sell. We agree to leave that to the end. Huawei is a complicated situation," Trump said.
If you were expecting to see Huawei off the "entity list," there's still time. In fact, solving the Huawei problem would signal the end of the trade war between the two countries and that Huawei appears to be a trump card for the US president during his trade negotiations.
"We had a very good meeting with President Xi of China, excellent, I would say excellent, as good as it was going to be. We discussed a lot of things and we're right back on track and we'll see what happens," Trump said, addressing to the reporters following his meeting with Xi.
