US-China deal: Perhaps not 'historic' but better than nothing

US PRESIDENT Donald Trump, with his fondness for superlatives, hailed the first-phase US-China trade agreement as "historic", "an amazing deal" and one in which China would make "massive purchases" from the United States despite evidence that Washington had to roll back tariffs to achieve this accord.

Chinese officials and scholars, in a more sober vein, described it as a ceasefire that enables the two sides to take "a step forward".

In October, the two sides appeared close to an agreement but then spent weeks more negotiating the topic of tariffs at China's insistence.