© Reuters / Charles Mostoller; Reuters / Michaela Rehle
China has agreed to purchase "large amounts of agricultural product from our great Farmers" in return for his concessions on Huawei, the US president said, admitting that American big tech was lobbying for the lifting of the ban.
"At the request of our High Tech companies, and President Xi, I agreed to allow Chinese company Huawei to buy product from them which will not impact our National Security."
Following the much-anticipated Xi-Trump meeting, which focused on resolving the ongoing trade conflict between the world's largest economies and tensions around Huawei, Trump noted that he "agreed not to increase the already existing Tariffs that we charge China while we continue to negotiate."
"We have opened up negotiations," Trump said, following the first sign of progress since the last round of talks broke down in May.
Throughout the course of the negotiations, the US has been pressing China to buy more American products, in particular agricultural goods, to reduce the 'unfair' trade imbalance. Beijing, for its part, has described Trump's protectionist policies, and tariffs he imposed on $250 billion worth of Chinese goods, as detrimental to both sides and global trade stability - but vowed a mirror response to any sanctions.
While the Chinese giant has been allowed to continue buying American components, Trump said nothing about letting Huawei sell its products in the US, as the company remains blacklisted under the pretext of a 'national security' threat. Huawei has repeatedly denounced the pressure and accusations of spying as a desperate attempt by Washington to preserve its waning dominance over global telecommunications lines.
Comment: Trump has had to make some concessions because the US has been suffering the worst of the trade war: