China: Truce drawn out by 90 days

US PRESIDENT Donald Trump this week ordered a delay in the re-imposition of higher tariffs on Chinese goods, hours before a trade truce between Washington and Beijing was due to expire.

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The White House’ halt on steeper tariffs will be in place until November 10.

“I have just signed an Executive Order that will extend the Tariff Suspension on China for another 90 days,” Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform. The truce on steeper levies had been due to expire yesterday.

While the US and China slapped escalating tariffs on each other's products this year, bringing them to prohibitive triple-digit levels and snarling trade, both countries in May agreed to temporarily lower them.

As part of their May truce, fresh US tariffs targeting China were reduced to 30 percent and the corresponding level from China was cut to 10%. Those rates will now hold until November - or whenever a deal is cut before then.

Around the same time that Trump confirmed the new extension, Chinese state media Xinhua news agency published a joint statement from US-China talks in Stockholm saying it would also extend its side of the truce.

China will continue suspending its earlier tariff hike for 90 days starting August 12 while retaining a 10% duty, the report said.

It would also “take or maintain necessary measures to suspend or remove non-tariff countermeasures against the US, as agreed in the Geneva joint declaration,” Xinhua reported.