[expert's point of view] Trade consultations will not be able to achieve commodity markets overnight or will be explored again

SMM4, 26 May (Xinhua) US President Donald Trump said at a joint press conference at the White House yesterday that China and the United States are expected to reach a trade agreement. At the same time, Trump announced that Treasury Secretary Mnuchin and US Trade Representative Leitzer will lead a delegation to China in a few days for trade negotiations.

But at the same time, Mr Trump also said that if the US and China failed to reach a trade agreement, the punitive additional ad valorem tariffs originally scheduled to be imposed on more than $50 billion worth of more than 1300 Chinese goods under the "301st investigation" would take effect as planned.

The Sino-US consultations are in sight, will there be any substantive progress between China and the United States? What will be the impact on commodity markets? Jiang Xingchun, director of Soochow Futures Research Institute, was interviewed by SMM.

As to where the future trade war will go, Jiang Xingchun said that Sino-US trade frictions have twists and turns, although this time Trump announced that he is expected to reach a trade agreement with China, and the US Treasury Secretary will come to China for consultations in the near future. But the Trump administration was meant to put pressure on China through a trade war to get the most out of it, forcing China to open up and lower tariffs in a number of areas. And China's unreasonable demands on the Trump administration are also a tough response, so there is a great deal of uncertainty about the direction of the future trade war.

"even if this negotiation moderates the trade war, it will be repeated and it will be difficult to resolve trade disputes overnight," he said.

Amid the simmering trade disputes between China and the US, Jiang Xingchun believes that the Sino-US trade war will only exacerbate commodity market volatility and pessimistic expectations of the global economy. "the trade between China and the United States will benefit industrial products, including non-ferrous metals, and there will be another downward demand in the future," he said.