Trump Touts Benefits of China Trade Truce for U.S. Farmers

(Bloomberg) -- President Donald Trump said the trade truce he struck with China will have “BIG and FAST” benefits for U.S. farmers.

China is poised to start immediately purchasing more U.S. agricultural products, Trump said in a Monday tweet that China agreed to “reduce and remove” tariffs on imported American-made cars, an assertion that official in Beijing have refused to confirm. The tweet jolted global auto stocks.

In a separate tweet Monday, Trump described his Saturday meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping at the Group of 20 summit in Argentina as “extraordinary,” saying “relations with China have taken a BIG leap forward!”

Trump and Xi agreed to keep their trade war from escalating with a promise to halt the imposition of new tariffs for 90 days, an outcome gives both sides enough to boast of a win without resolving the fundamental differences between them.

This isn’t the first time Trump has spoken in glowing terms of an incremental agreement to cool tensions he contributed to escalating. Following his June summit with Kim Jong Un, he declared that North Korea was no longer a nuclear threat. The North has since continued its nuclear weapons development, according to the International Atomic Energy Agency.

To contact the reporter on this story: Kathleen Hunter in London at khunter9@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Craig Gordon at cgordon39@bloomberg.net, Elizabeth Wasserman

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