Washington (AFP)

"Historic milestone": Donald Trump welcomed Wednesday the trade agreement signed with Chinese Deputy Prime Minister Liu He which puts an interim end to an unprecedented showdown between the two largest economic powers in the world.

"Today marks a historic step (...) that had never been taken (...) towards a fair and reciprocal trade agreement between the United States and China," said the American president.

Faced with the President's enthusiasm, the National Retailers Federation (NRF) and the main agricultural union, the American Farm Bureau Federation, were more measured. They welcomed this treaty while stressing that "there is still work to be done".

For the time being, this treaty, which will come into force in 30 days, will benefit farmers and industrialists, hard hit by the trade war.

China has pledged to buy $ 200 billion in additional US products over the next two years. These purchases are intended to reduce the American trade deficit, a great demand of the White House.

Triggered in the spring of 2018 to put an end to Chinese trade practices deemed "unfair", this conflict was materialized by reciprocal punitive customs duties on hundreds of billions of dollars in goods.

- Customs tariffs to negotiate -

But Donald Trump said punitive tariffs currently hitting more than $ 370 billion on Chinese goods will be maintained until phase 2 of the deal is signed.

"We are keeping the customs tariffs, but I will accept to delete them if we manage to conclude phase 2," said the White House tenant. "I will keep them, otherwise we will not have any cards in hand to negotiate".

And this is where the rub for many economic actors. "The trade war will not be over until all tariffs have disappeared," said Mathew Shay, president of the NRF.

If the administration claims mordicus that it is China which pays, a great majority of economists underline that in fact it is the American importers and perhaps soon the consumer who pay the costs of these taxes.

The administration predicts that this agreement will boost the growth of the world's largest economy by half a percentage point.

This conflict, however, severely affected the agricultural world and the manufacturing industry in the United States, the very people who had brought the Republican President to power in 2016.

Donald Trump bet on their patriotism, asking them to be patient before a better tomorrow.

Claiming that trade wars were easy to win, he also constantly reiterated that the U.S. economy was unaffected by tariffs when Chinese growth slowed.

However, this conflict, unprecedented in its intensity and duration, has dampened investor appetite and slowed global growth, like Chinese and American growth.

What is more, most of the cost of customs tariffs was borne by American importers.

- Ceremony overshadowed by Democrats -

"We know there will still be disputes between our two countries, but today marks the start of a new chapter in trade relations between the two largest economies in the world," said Vice President Mike Pence.

As historic as it is, the signing ceremony broadcast live by all the major American television channels was abruptly interrupted to give the floor to the Democrats in the House of Representatives.

They will send the indictment against Donald Trump to the Senate before a trial scheduled to start on Tuesday.

Joe Biden, favorite candidate of the Democratic primary, said that China was the big winner of this agreement.

"For the first time, we have a full agreement" with a "real mechanism to enforce" the agreement, argued Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin.

"China recognizes the importance of establishing and implementing a comprehensive legal system for the protection (...) of intellectual property," it said in particular in the text.

In addition, any transfer or license of technology must be based on a voluntary basis and "reflecting a mutual agreement", it is said while China previously imposed on American companies the forced transfer of their know-how to make business in China.

An entire chapter is devoted to the opening of the Chinese market to financial services.

Donald Trump plans to travel to China soon as negotiations for a second phase of the deal must begin "immediately" to address more sensitive issues such as cybersecurity.

© 2020 AFP