Shy signs of truce in the trade war between Beijing and Washington

China has announced a one-year postponement of duties on some American assets and Trump's two-week shift in the increase in customs duties to $ 250 billion of Chinese products.

Hong Kong (AsiaNews / Agencies) - Markets have reacted positively to the small steps taken by China and the United States to cool trade tensions between them.

Yesterday, China announced that for a year it would renounce duties on some US assets and US President Donald Trump announced that he will move to October 15 raising customs tariffs that should weigh 250 billion dollars on goods imported from China.

Trump called the postponement a sign of "good will" towards China. He said that the increase in customs tariffs from 25% to 30% will be shifted from October 1 to the 70th anniversary of the birth of the People's Republic of China - to October 15.

In a tweet he explained: "At the request of the Chinese deputy prime minister Liu He and due to the celebration, on October 1st, of the 70th anniversary of the People's Republic of China, we agreed, as a sign of good will, to move from October 1st to 15th raising customs duties on assets equivalent to 250 billion dollars (from 25 to 30%).

 The weak economic data of both countries are probably fuelling the desire to reach a sort of agreement. American production, for example, this summer has shrunk for the first time in three years.

The exemptions announced by China are seen by experts as an "olive branch" that suggests Beijing's desire to end or at least reduce tensions between the parties. Hu Xijin, director of the Chinese Global Times, told Bloomberg today that he did not think of Chinese exemptions as a "concession".

And analysts have pointed out that the exemptions in China - which begin on September 17 and will continue for a year - so far do not include the main goods subject to tariffs, such as soy or meat. Instead they include products such as shrimp, fishmeal and cancer treatment drugs.

The United States and China are expected to meet again in Washington in the coming weeks for another round of trade negotiations. But experts believe that a real compromise will be difficult to achieve, since the United States would like China to make extensive structural changes that would result in a significant reduction in the role of the state in the economy. Which Beijing does not intend to do.

And there is pessimism in American companies in China, according to a report published yesterday by the American Chamber of Commerce in Shanghai