Trump Cancels China Talks, Raising Questions About Trade Deal

• President Donald Trump said he called off last weekend’s trade talks with China, raising questions about the future of a trade deal that is now the most stable point in an increasingly tense relationship.
• The phase-one trade deal, which came into force in February, had called for discussions on the implementation of the agreement every six months.
• Chinese Vice Premier Liu He was supposed to hold a video conference call with U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, but it was postponed indefinitely.
• While China is making many of the structural changes it promised on issues such as intellectual property protection, its purchases of U.S. goods are well below where they need to be to meet promised targets, and there is almost no chance they can be fulfilled now with the damage COVID-19 has done to the global economy.
• A collapse of the deal increases the risks of a return of the tit-for-tat tariff war that hurt trade and companies around the world.

(Source: Bloomberg)