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The US and China called a small ceasefire in their trade war. But the
standoff isn’t over.

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their trade war. But the standoff isn’t over.

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   Zhoushan, Zhejiang Province of China. Yao Feng/VCG via Getty Images

   The smallest of openings in the US-China trade war has appeared,
   potentially signaling a break in tensions between the two nations.

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   Again, it’s not much, but it shows that Trump is willing to lessen some
   of the pressure in the trade war that he started.

   However, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin claims that Trump’s move is
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   So do Wednesday’s actions mean this is the beginning of the end of the
   trade war? Likely not.

“It suits both governments to have a bit of a breather right now”
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   Jacob Kirkegaard, a global trade expert at the Peterson Institute for
   International Economics, told me that Beijing and Washington have yet
   to fundamentally change their overall stances on the trade war. China
   is fine striking a small deal with the US — reducing tariffs so it can
   buy large amounts of products again — while America wants the “big
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   to wait to see if Trump loses in 2020. Should he win, though, China may
   be forced to come to some sort of agreement with the president — or the
   destructive trade war will continue well into the future.

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