Trade deal on the cards if Trump leaves Huawei alone

For weeks and weeks the US/China trade war has been a reliable source of news, and on the eve of the G20 meeting, the dynamic duo haven’t disappointed.

This week, representatives of the 20 richest countries around the world will meet in Japan to discuss everything from fishing regulations through to finance and climate change. Telecommunications, and more specifically cybersecurity, will of course be on the agenda, and most importantly, it will feature in the meeting between President Donald Trump and President Xi Jinping.

Of all the bouts over the next couple of days, this will be the one everyone is paying attention to. The leaders of the worlds’ two largest economy, duking it out to gain supremacy. Trump has said he wants a trade deal, and so has Xi. These two nations not getting on is no good for anyone, but it seems neither wants to appear as weak and concede ground.

The latest development is coming out of Beijing. Xi has stated he is open to a trade deal between the two nations, but Trump would have to stop targeting Huawei as a proxy for passive and active aggression against the Chinese Government.

This is going to be a massive ask from the Chinese premier, as while Trump is fully willing to use companies as pawns in his greatest negotiation, the supporting cast in Congress might not be as willing. We’ve already seen this during the ZTE saga.

It might seem like a lifetime ago, but it was in mid-2018 ZTE found itself in the crosshairs of the White House. Trump built up the situation, seemingly as a demonstration of the power of the Oval Office, and once the point had been made he tried to stand down. But Congress stood in the way.

26 Senators, somewhat hardliners, attempted to block the de-escalation from Trump. They seemingly bought into the evil stories told by Trump as validation for such actions and weren’t willing to let the company off the hook. Trump wanted to play a game with ZTE as movable piece, but Congress wasn’t reading the rule book.

The same situation might happen here. Opinion in the US has been directed towards Huawei being the weapon of Chinese oppression on the world, and Trump has been the most vocal when it came to hyping the fear. Even if Trump does want to step down from this position to facilitate a deal, Congress might once again prevent him.

Trump seems to have done a good job in convincing politicians of the national security threat, and Congress does not seem to have the same game-playing attitude as Trump; if something is a national security threat, it will remain one. The opportunity of commercial gain will not change that.

This is of course assuming Trump wants to make a deal. Xi has played his hand, set out his demands with Huawei, and Trump seems to be just as combative. In interviews and tweets, the President has condemned Canada for tariffs on agricultural products, slammed India for its own tariffs and suggest China’s economy is ‘going down the tubes’.

Currently we have two Presidents who do not seem like they are going to shift. In their homelands they have created personas of strength, leaning on hawkish strategies not diplomacy. It would be fair to assume a continuation of the status quo.