A month ago Beijing and Washington agreed to a 90-day truce through mid-August in their crippling tariffs to allow time to resolve many of their trade disagreements — from tariffs to export controls.
Lancaster House carries historical significance. It has hosted major addresses by UK prime ministers, speeches by central bank governors and parties for Britain’s royal family.
At the same time, Trump’s trade team is scrambling to secure bilateral deals with India, Japan, South Korea and several other countries that are racing to do so before July 9, when the US president’s so-called reciprocal tariffs rise from the current 10% baseline to much higher levels customized for each trading partner.
Meanwhile, Chinese President Xi Jinping on Tuesday held his first phone conversation with South Korea’s newly elected President Lee Jae-myung and called for cooperation to safeguard multilateralism and free trade.
“We should strengthen bilateral cooperation and multilateral coordination, jointly safeguard multilateralism and free trade, and ensure the stability and smoothness of global and regional industrial chains and supply chains,” Xi said, according to the CCTV report.
