Trade war fears ebb as U.S., China agree to continue talks

Washington and Beijing both claimed victory on Monday as the world's two largest economies stepped back from the brink of a global trade war and agreed to hold further talks to boost U.S. exports to China.

Over the weekend, the two sides pledged to keep talking about how China could import more energy and agricultural commodities from the United States so as to narrow the $335 billion annual U.S. goods and services trade deficit with China, although details and a firm timeline were thin.

The biggest immediate beneficiary appeared to be China, which won a reprieve from threatened tariffs on $50 billion US of its exports to the U.S. as well as a lifeline for ZTE Corp., a major company whose existence had been threatened by U.S. sanctions.

The U.S. meanwhile appeared to have won promises of more imports by China, although there were no specifics...

This was excerpted from the 21 May 2018 edition of CBC News.