Very good weekend for US, China: Trump delays tariff increase on Chinese imports

US President Donald Trump on Sunday (local time) announced that he would be delaying the increase of tariffs on Chinese imports, originally scheduled to come into effect from March 1.

He also announced that "assuming both sides make additional progress," a summit with his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping would be held at Mar-a-Lago to conclude an agreement which would bring the trade imbalance between the nations to an end.

The US President hailed the recently-concluded trade talks between Washington and Beijing and outlined that "substantial progress" had been made on a variety of issues.

"I am pleased to report that the US has made substantial progress in our trade talks with China on important structural issues including intellectual property protection, technology transfer, agriculture, services, currency, and many other issues," Trump tweeted on February 24 (local time).

"As a result of these very productive talks, I will be delaying the US increase in tariffs now scheduled for March 1. Assuming both sides make additional progress, we will be planning a Summit for President Xi and myself, at Mar-a-Lago, to conclude an agreement. A very good weekend for U.S. & China!" he highlighted.

China and the United States have temporarily halted the trade war between the sides in order to hold talks to alleviate the situation. A 90-day truce period was decided upon by Trump and Xi when they met on the sidelines of the G20 summit in Argentina last year.

The US President had earlier threatened to raise tariffs on the USD 200 billion of Chinese products from 10 per cent to 25 per cent at the end of the period of truce on March 1. Upon "successful" trade talks between the two nations, he later indicated that he might extend the March 1 deadline to work out a deal.

He met with the Chinese delegation, led by Vice-Premier Liu He, in Washington on February 23, where China agreed to purchase an additional 10 million metric tons of US soybeans.