After yesterday’s reports regarding the possibility of US and China reaching a partial short-term trade deal, US indices succumbed to pessimism, when this option was discarded by Trump after the market closed, saying that he only accepts a comprehensive trade deal. Today Wall Street is recovering some of Tuesday’s losses due to Beijing’s apparent readiness by Bloomberg to accept a primary deal, with the Financial Times reporting that China has offered to increase annual agricultural purchases.
But if today is a day of apparent optimism, let us not forget that the theme of trade war is encompassed in a much broader landscape and there are topics that will hardly make a deal viable. Even if a deal is reached, its enforcement and control will bring a few more headaches. How will the world’s two greatest potentials fit in, after a period of US rule, when China reaches the top of the world?
Photo by Carlos De Souza.
That is the problem to be solved, because the tendency will be for this far east country to increasingly play an important role in the global scenario, which for the US implies to evaluate issues as important as national security, beyond the economy.
That is, it will be very unlikely for this soap opera to end in the short term, which will leave room for many more days of illusion, like today and disappointment like yesterday.
