USA-China: an agreement that calls for many more

Washington and China have not yet settled the crux of the problem.

This is not yet the cordial agreement between the United States and China, far from it. "It is not much and it does not lead very far on the big questions", summarized Barry Naughton, University of California, interviewed by AFP.

The agreement reached Friday in Washington is nonetheless a first step towards a warming of relations between the two countries, caught in the context of a trade war since last year.

A first step to confirm, of course. "This is an important step, not so much on the content but on the method which, with a lot of uncertainty, can lead to a series of progressive agreements ", said Barry Naughton again.

Under the agreement, Beijing has pledged to buy more agricultural products from the United States, a measure long sought by the US president.

Outstanding

In return, China has obtained that Washington renounces the 25-30% increase in punitive tariffs on $ 250 billion of Chinese imports into the United States.

"Farmers really hit the jackpot ! ", assured Saturday the host of the White House.

The US president, he hopes to win the jackpot with this agreement by courting a potentially key electorate, namely farmers. Better to have them in your pocket rather than against you in the run-up to the November 2020 presidential election, in a little over a year.

American farmers had been particularly targeted by Chinese retaliation. The Trump administration had to release $ 28 billion in federal aid to mitigate their losses.

Unresolved issues such as massive subsidies to Chinese state-owned enterprises or the issue of technology remain unresolved.