One of the major takeaways from the Osaka G20 summit? President Trump faltering, compromising on his trade war with China.
Rabat – President Trump has announced that the US is “totally open” to cooperating with China as well as reconsidering lifting its recently-imposed trade ban on Huawei. Trump made the decision after participating in a G20 summit in Osaka, Japan.
The move means the Chinese high-tech giant, which the Trump administration has long suspected of being an instrument for realizing Beijing’s great-power aspirations and undermining US interests, can continue trading with American companies.
“One of the things I will allow, however, is, a lot of people are surprised we send and we sell to Huawei a tremendous amount of product that goes into the various things that they make. And I said that that’s okay, that we will keep selling that product,” Trump explained.
Is is not totally clear what made the US president reconsider his stance, but suggestions are that the series of meetings with world leaders at the Osaka G20 summit, including a much-anticipated meeting with his Chinese counterpart, Xi Jinping, played a substantial role in the president’s change of heart.
But there was also the fact that the Chinese giant is an exceedingly valuable customer which American high-tech giants cannot afford to lose.
Even as he heaped praise on the “incredible job” being done in Silicon Valley, President Trump appeared to concede Huawei’s importance in the global high-tech ecosystem.
“So American companies will continue [trading with Huawei] and they were having a problem, the companies were not exactly happy that they couldn’t sell because they had nothing to do with whatever it was potentially happening with respect to Huawei, so I did do that.”
The Osaka summit opened on a sour note, with noticeable glimpses of the gulf separating EU leaders, China, Russia, and the US resurfacing in numerous instances.
By the last day of the event, however, some deep-seated feelings of enmity appeared to have been attenuated. The summit’s final declaration urged to “keep our markets open” and champion “free, fair, and non-discriminatory” rules for international trade.
China’s Xi Ping, for his part, speaking of the trade war with the US, called for “dialogue and cooperation.” He argued that confrontation was in no one’s favor.
President Trump called his encounter with China’s Jinping a “great meeting.” He added, explaining that things had gone unexpectedly well in the pair’s meeting, that US-China trade negotiations were “right back on track.”
Trump said, “We will continue to negotiate, and I promise that at least for the time being we won’t be adding additional [tariffs] … We’re going to work with China to see if we can make a deal. China will consult with us and will be buying a tremendous amount of food and agricultural products, and they’re going to start doing that almost immediately.”
