When I posted that Trump caved, I was referring to the fact that he did not impose scheduled tariffs on Dec 15 notwithstanding the fact that no deal with China was signed. Phase 1 was signed a month later with the primary benefit to the US being a promise from China to buy $200 billion of US imports over the next two years.
As far as the tariffs reduced by China (they were halved, not eliminated but you have to read beyond the headline to get that) they were imposed in response to Trump’s tariffs to begin with, so we haven’t even returned to the status quo pre-trade war.
As for the $200 billion commitment, I agree it sounds pretty good. Total US exports to China were $177B in 2017. But see this Brookings institution
analysis explaining that the purchase commitments are politically unenforceable and in fact ultimately increase Chinese trade leverage. But they make for a good headline, which is all that is important to Trump, because he knows that his supporters are short attention span morons, such as yourself, who won’t bother with the details.
