US President Donald Trump may find himself wielding less leverage when he heads to China in the wake of a Supreme Court ruling that overturned his signature tariff policy, Chinese analysts and exporters say.
They said the court’s decision could weaken Trump’s negotiating position with Chinese President Xi Jinping, while potentially offering short-term good news for US-linked exporters in China.
The White House confirmed Trump’s China visit on Friday, just as the US Supreme Court ruled the president’s tariffs illegal in a major blow to his trade agenda ahead of the high-stakes summit in Beijing.The March 31 to April 2 trip will be Trump’s first visit to China since returning to power – his previous one was in November 2017 during his first term. Xi is expected to visit America later this year.
Shi Yinhong, a professor of international relations at Renmin University in Beijing, said “the ruling of the Supreme Court weakened, of course, Trump’s trade leverage vis-a-vis the Chinese side”.
However, he stressed that this did not automatically translate into greater Chinese advantage at the coming summit. Given Trump’s transactional approach, Beijing would need both the capacity and willingness to make some concessions that Trump could present as a “success story”, Shi said.
