By signing a phase-one trade agreement with China, President Trump most likely has succeeded in preventing a crisis of his own making from spiraling out of control. At least now, in the run up to the November election, it seems highly unlikely that we will have an escalation in the U.S.-China trade war that has caused so much damage to the U.S. and world economies.
But it is far from clear whether this phase-one deal will have done anything to repair the damage from the punitive import tariffs imposed on China. This would appear to be especially the case since the administration is not planning to roll back the many restrictive import tariffs that will remain on China until after November’s U.S. presidential election.
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