Critical first encounter between US President Trump and his Chinese counterpart Xi – Lloyds Bank

Hann-Ju Ho, Research Analyst at Lloyds Bank, explains that a critical first encounter will take place between US President Trump and his Chinese counterpart Xi in Florida.

Key Quotes

“Mr Trump tweeted last week that the discussions may be “very difficult”, with key issues including the trade imbalance between the two countries which, from the US administration’s perspective, reflects China’s trade protectionism and currency misalignments. However, although the US trade deficit in goods with China remained high at $347bn in 2016, accounting for nearly half of the total, China’s global current account surplus has been falling in recent years. Moreover, its central bank has of late been propping up, rather than devaluing, its currency to limit the impact of capital outflows.”