All eyes are now on Thursday’s meeting between President Xi Jinping and US President Donald Trump in South Korea.
Their first in-person encounter since Trump’s return to office in January will build on several rounds of trade talks between the two sides that have touched on issues ranging from tariffs to export controls.
In this explainer, the Post outlines the key pain points between the world’s two largest economies – and whether they are likely to be addressed.
What issues may be agreed on by both sides?
According to a research note by ANZ Bank analysts Raymond Yeung and Xing Zhaopeng that was issued on Monday, a potential deal could address several contentious areas, including the United States’ fentanyl-related tariff, reciprocal tariffs, soybean purchases and the ownership of TikTok’s American operations.
They said they expected a partial rollback of the 20 per cent punitive tariff that the US imposed in March after Washington accused Beijing of failing to curb the flow of precursor chemicals used to make fentanyl, a powerful synthetic opioid that accounts for almost 70 per cent of drug overdose deaths in the US.
The analysts said both sides were likely to formalise a reciprocal tariff arrangement, following a truce reached in Geneva to lower duties to 10 per cent.
No US soybeans were imported by China last month after Beijing imposed a 25 per cent retaliatory tariff on US agricultural imports in April in response to America’s fentanyl-related tariff. Yeung and Xing said they expected China would resume soybean purchases from the US after the summit.
A framework deal on the TikTok social media platform’s US operations was reached during talks in Madrid last month, and the ANZ Bank analysts said they expected both sides to “signal positive progress” at the summit.
