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How are leading Western think tanks unboxing the Xi-Trump summit?
The Post looks at insights shared by analysts in the US and Europe after the leaders’ high-stakes meeting in South Korea
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US President Donald Trump hailed his high-stakes meeting on Thursday with Chinese leader Xi Jinping as a “great success”, marked by progress on thorny trade issues.
Trump agreed to reduce America’s fentanyl-related tariffs on China by 10 percentage points and cut the overall tariff rate on Chinese imports from 57 per cent to 47 per cent. For its part, Beijing will resume buying US farm products, including soybeans, and delay by one year the implementation of its most sweeping export controls on rare earths.
Trump said he and Xi also spoke at length about possible pathways to peace in the Ukraine war. Some perennially contentious issues, such as Taiwan, went unmentioned.
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What does their meeting mean for trade and other issues between them? Here is what major think tanks in America and Europe took away from the summit.
The Centre for Strategic and International Studies
Philip Luck and Hugh Grant-Chapman of CSIS said China’s soybean purchases would remain modest even if a deal between Xi and Trump was signed, highlighting the American market’s vulnerability.
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