Donald Trump and China's Xi Jinping spoke over the phone last night.
They agreed to launch a new round of trade talks in their first known conversation since the US president returned to the White House in January.
Asia Business Correspondent Peter Lewis joins the show to discuss.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Peter Lewis, Asia Business correspondent with US Now. Hy Peter, Hi, Heather,
So what do you take from this phone call?
Speaker 2 (00:08):
Well, if you listen to Donald Trump, he says it
was very good. He says we're in very good shape
with China and the trade deal. He says China's invited
him to Beijing, which is accepted, and that was reported
and confirmed by China. What wasn't reported confirmed by China
was that Trump was also saying President She's going to
(00:28):
go to Washington. So it remains to be seen if
that happens. The thing is, though, when you look through this,
as you tend to do when you've examined more closely,
some of the stuff that Trump says, nothing has really changed.
There hasn't been a deal of any sort. All that's
happened is that the US President has said that high
(00:49):
level talks are going to begin, So there'll be the
US Treasury Secretary there, the Commers secret the trade representative.
And you have to bear in mind that the Chinese
team is led by Vice Premier Early Fame, and he
has a clear mandate from President She not catering to
American's demands at all without getting concessions in return, and
(01:11):
they're not going to give a single thing away unless
they get something offered by Trump first. And that's how
it went in Switzerland. You remember a few a few
weeks ago, China gave up absolutely nothing. Trump sort of
rolled back his tariffs. China match that, but didn't offer
anything else. And it's exactly the same here. You know,
(01:32):
there's no concessions at all, for example, on these contentious
issues of rare earth mineral exports, which is a big
sticking point and is doing a lot of damage to
American industry, the fact that they can't get hold of
these rare earths at the moments, which are essential for semiconductors,
all sorts of appliances for defense. No concessions there at all.
(01:57):
And if you look at the official New Agency Generile
News Agency's account of the meeting, that struck a far
less conciliatory tone in its account of a call than
Trump did. So you know that there seems all that's
happened is that we're at the beginning of a process
to try and see if the two sides can come
(02:19):
to some sort of agreement. But I think we're a
long way from saying that they have agreed to anything.
Speaker 1 (02:25):
Yeah, China reckons that the phone call came about because
Trump asked for it. That seems again to indicate that
China's got the upper hand here.
Speaker 2 (02:31):
Yeah, I think so. I think you know, the US
has really underestimated China here. They've underestimated their willingness to
hold out and not be bullied by these tariffs. They've
also completely underestimated China's strong card here, which is the
(02:52):
fact that it controls global production in these rare earths.
They're so critical and I don't think Trump anticipated that
China would hold them, and it's going to carry on
with holding them until the US is prepared to remove
its restrictions on things like exports in the video chips Ai,
(03:13):
software and hardware and all sorts of other things, you know,
having Chinese companies on these restricted lists, and the China's
not going to give up its control over rare earths
until the US does something first in those areas. And
that may be difficult because sort of putting China on
these entity lists spanning exports to China is about the
(03:37):
only thing that the Republicans and the Democrats can agree
on in Congress, So it may be very very difficult
to remove them.
Speaker 1 (03:44):
Quiet this business with South Korea. Do you reckon now
that they've got a new president, they could put all
that turmoil behind them. Is it over?
Speaker 2 (03:52):
No? Definitely not over. I mean the Career has an
advantage or the new president Lee has an advantage in
that his part, he controls Parliament and he's the president,
so that should in theory make it easier to get
policies through. However, he faces some really really big challenges,
(04:12):
not least the fact that Career is very very divided politically.
It's divided between young and old. It's divided between young
men and young women. So it's going to take a
lot of successful policies to really bridge that divide. And
it's got a huge problem on its economy. If there's
one economy in the world that depends on international trade,
(04:36):
it's self Korea. And if there's one economy in the
world that's been damaged more than anyone else by these tariffs,
it's solf Korea. You have to bear in mind that
eighty seven percent of Career's economy is international trade. If
the US imposes these twenty five percent tariffs that it's
threatening to do it will plunge the economy into recession.
(04:59):
Exports to the US a loan of about six to
eight percent of GDP, so the economy, which already contracted
in the first quarter, will slip into recession. So President
Lee has got a really big task on his hands
to try and deal with these tariffs. And you've also
(05:20):
got Donald Trump threatening to throw in the security issues
as well. He wants Career to pay more for its defense,
and this is going to be also very difficult for Career.
They're going to need an awful amount of stimulus to
try and offset the damage that's being done by to
the economy and also to pay for, you know, the
(05:42):
more for its own defense that the US claims it's
in effect paying for.
Speaker 1 (05:48):
Peter, thank you for your tom We'll talk to you
again next week. You look after yourself. That's Peter Lewis,
our Asia Business correspondent.
Speaker 2 (05:54):
For more from hither Douplassy Allen Drive, listen live to
news talks.
Speaker 1 (05:57):
It'd be from four pm weekdays, or follow the podcast
on iHeartRadio.
Peter Lewis, Asia Business correspondent with US Now. Hy Peter, Hi, Heather,
So what do you take from this phone call?
Speaker 2 (00:08):
Well, if you listen to Donald Trump, he says it
was very good. He says we're in very good shape
with China and the trade deal. He says China's invited
him to Beijing, which is accepted, and that was reported
and confirmed by China. What wasn't reported confirmed by China
was that Trump was also saying President She's going to
(00:28):
go to Washington. So it remains to be seen if
that happens. The thing is, though, when you look through this,
as you tend to do when you've examined more closely,
some of the stuff that Trump says, nothing has really changed.
There hasn't been a deal of any sort. All that's
happened is that the US President has said that high
(00:49):
level talks are going to begin, So there'll be the
US Treasury Secretary there, the Commers secret the trade representative.
And you have to bear in mind that the Chinese
team is led by Vice Premier Early Fame, and he
has a clear mandate from President She not catering to
American's demands at all without getting concessions in return, and
(01:11):
they're not going to give a single thing away unless
they get something offered by Trump first. And that's how
it went in Switzerland. You remember a few a few
weeks ago, China gave up absolutely nothing. Trump sort of
rolled back his tariffs. China match that, but didn't offer
anything else. And it's exactly the same here. You know,
(01:32):
there's no concessions at all, for example, on these contentious
issues of rare earth mineral exports, which is a big
sticking point and is doing a lot of damage to
American industry, the fact that they can't get hold of
these rare earths at the moments, which are essential for semiconductors,
all sorts of appliances for defense. No concessions there at all.
(01:57):
And if you look at the official New Agency Generile
News Agency's account of the meeting, that struck a far
less conciliatory tone in its account of a call than
Trump did. So you know that there seems all that's
happened is that we're at the beginning of a process
to try and see if the two sides can come
(02:19):
to some sort of agreement. But I think we're a
long way from saying that they have agreed to anything.
Speaker 1 (02:25):
Yeah, China reckons that the phone call came about because
Trump asked for it. That seems again to indicate that
China's got the upper hand here.
Speaker 2 (02:31):
Yeah, I think so. I think you know, the US
has really underestimated China here. They've underestimated their willingness to
hold out and not be bullied by these tariffs. They've
also completely underestimated China's strong card here, which is the
(02:52):
fact that it controls global production in these rare earths.
They're so critical and I don't think Trump anticipated that
China would hold them, and it's going to carry on
with holding them until the US is prepared to remove
its restrictions on things like exports in the video chips Ai,
(03:13):
software and hardware and all sorts of other things, you know,
having Chinese companies on these restricted lists, and the China's
not going to give up its control over rare earths
until the US does something first in those areas. And
that may be difficult because sort of putting China on
these entity lists spanning exports to China is about the
(03:37):
only thing that the Republicans and the Democrats can agree
on in Congress, So it may be very very difficult
to remove them.
Speaker 1 (03:44):
Quiet this business with South Korea. Do you reckon now
that they've got a new president, they could put all
that turmoil behind them. Is it over?
Speaker 2 (03:52):
No? Definitely not over. I mean the Career has an
advantage or the new president Lee has an advantage in
that his part, he controls Parliament and he's the president,
so that should in theory make it easier to get
policies through. However, he faces some really really big challenges,
(04:12):
not least the fact that Career is very very divided politically.
It's divided between young and old. It's divided between young
men and young women. So it's going to take a
lot of successful policies to really bridge that divide. And
it's got a huge problem on its economy. If there's
one economy in the world that depends on international trade,
(04:36):
it's self Korea. And if there's one economy in the
world that's been damaged more than anyone else by these tariffs,
it's solf Korea. You have to bear in mind that
eighty seven percent of Career's economy is international trade. If
the US imposes these twenty five percent tariffs that it's
threatening to do it will plunge the economy into recession.
(04:59):
Exports to the US a loan of about six to
eight percent of GDP, so the economy, which already contracted
in the first quarter, will slip into recession. So President
Lee has got a really big task on his hands
to try and deal with these tariffs. And you've also
(05:20):
got Donald Trump threatening to throw in the security issues
as well. He wants Career to pay more for its defense,
and this is going to be also very difficult for Career.
They're going to need an awful amount of stimulus to
try and offset the damage that's being done by to
the economy and also to pay for, you know, the
(05:42):
more for its own defense that the US claims it's
in effect paying for.
Speaker 1 (05:48):
Peter, thank you for your tom We'll talk to you
again next week. You look after yourself. That's Peter Lewis,
our Asia Business correspondent.
Speaker 2 (05:54):
For more from hither Douplassy Allen Drive, listen live to
news talks.
Speaker 1 (05:57):
It'd be from four pm weekdays, or follow the podcast
on iHeartRadio.
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