The US and China on Saturday announced a ceasefire in their tariffs war, hours after US President Donald Trump upended another international forum by snubbing G20 action on trade disputes and climate change.

Over a dinner of steaks and Argentine wine in Buenos Aires, Trump and President Xi Jinping brokered a truce to ensure that – for now – there will be no further escalation to their tit-for-tat imposition of tariffs on goods worth hundreds of billions of dollars.

Trump withdrew his threat to raise the US tariffs even more on January 1, in return for a promise from China to buy more US goods and enter into a 90-day period of talks to resolve their differences.

Those include market access for US companies and protecting their intellectual property from theft by Chinese rivals.

Absent agreement in that time, tariffs now set at 10 per cent will be raised to 25 per cent, according to a White House statement.

“This was an amazing and productive meeting with unlimited possibilities for both the US and China,” Trump said in the statement, released as he flew home from a stormy trip spent accosting his fellow leaders at the world’s pre-eminent economic forum.http://www.phnompenhpost.com/business/us-china-tariffs-truce-after-g20