Is US-China deal more than 'truce' for troubled times?

DONALD Trump and Chinese Vice-Premier Liu He are making final preparations to sign next week the "stage 1" bilateral trade deal negotiated in 2018 and 2019. While the agreement is being warmly welcomed, it may prove to be no more than a relatively brief respite in the US-China tensions of Mr Trump's presidency.

The reason the deal was finalised late last year, despite recent bilateral differences on a range of issues including Iran and Hong Kong, is that both sides decided even a truce, however temporary, is in their domestic interests. As Mr Trump enters his re-election year, he will claim - however far-fetched in reality - to have brought Beijing to heel.

Meanwhile, the agreement provides a degree of stability in China's most important economic bilateral relationship after some recent sub-par national economic data, and continued political unrest in Hong Kong. A further incentive for both sides to move late last year was that the next tariff deadline was due to fall on Dec15 after which additional US levies on Chinese exports were scheduled with a 15 per cent rate applied to a furt…