TOI correspondent from Washington: US President Donald Trump claimed on Wednesday that Washington and Beijing have a “done deal” on trade amid broad skepticism given his penchant for verbal overreach and a cautious statement from China which only said a “framework ” had been reached to implement a “consensus” reached between the two sides.“Our deal with China is done, subject to final approval with President Xi and me,” Trump posted on his Truth Social account on Wednesday morning following two days of talks in London between negotiators, inviting cynical response from skeptics who likened the announcement to a runner saying, “I just completed the Marathon, subject to running the last 10miles successfully.”The Chinese side left no doubt that a full deal was still a work in progress and the two leaders were yet to sign off on it, saying while the talks in London were “professional, rational, in-depth and candid,” the two sides have, “in principle, reached a framework for implementing the consensus reached by the two heads of state during the phone call on June 5th and the consensus reached at the Geneva meeting.”That consensus centered largely on a 90-day suspension of most of the 100%-plus tariffs the two countries had imposed on each other. The Chinese side did not disclose any progress made in London. But Trump announced that “full magnets, and any necessary rare earths, will be supplied, up front, by China” and “Likewise, we will provide to China what was agreed to, including Chinese students using our colleges and universities (which has always been good with me!”“WE ARE GETTING A TOTAL OF 55% TARIFFS, CHINA IS GETTING 10%. RELATIONSHIP IS EXCELLENT! THANK YOU FOR YOUR ATTENTION TO THIS MATTER!” he concluded in his customary all-caps post. The two sides have engaged in bruising negotiations over the past fortnight, included the in-person meeting in London, leveraging each others’ critical stranglehold on the other to reach a broader trade deal. While China shut off supply of critical rare earths required for US weapons and automobile advances in response to Trump’s tariff hike, Washington responded by curtailing exports of American products and technology, including chemicals, airplane parts and software, while threatening to bar Chinese students from enrolling in the US. Which side is backing down is hard to say. While Trump’s MAGA flock insists that China had “bent its knee” before their great dealmakers, Trump critics said he has had to retreat in the trade war he initiated, and the matter is far from settled absent a full readout of the talks and the prospective deal, with details. The skepticism stems from Trump’s bombastic claims on a range of topics, from stopping the Russia-Ukraine war on “Day One” to promise of a “gold card” in two weeks, to claims of having brought about truce between India and Pakistan, all of which have turned out to be premature, hollow, or false. US markets appeared to acknowledge the skepticism, barely budging despite the announcement.
