Tariff cuts or a new 7.5 per cent duty on China? Possible outcomes on the cards as leaders navigate a trade truce and a widening tech schism
3-MIN READ3-MIN ListenHe Huifengin GuangdongPublished: 8:30pm, 18 Sep 2026President Xi Jinping is scheduled to sit down with US President Donald Trump in Washington next week, and their planned summit looks to be closely watched as an indicator of the current state of ties between the world’s two largest economies.
Here is a breakdown of the outlook from the perspectives of global financial institutions and policy analysts.
The bar for next week’s meeting, slated for Thursday, is relatively low, according to some research houses and research organisations.
The results of a recent Goldman Sachs investor survey showed that most respondents expected the meeting to be symbolic, though onshore Chinese investors were relatively constructive: 38 per cent expected incremental progress, compared with 26 per cent among offshore respondents.
