Two days of trade "talks" that concluded last night did not lead to any meaningful progress and, according to officials who spoke to Bloomberg, there are no plans for future talks.
Curiously, the officials say China isn't interested in talking again until after our midterm elections.
The two sides had met with low expectations for this week’s meetings and no further talks had been scheduled, a person familiar with the discussions said. The person, who requested anonymity to discuss the private deliberations, also said Chinese officials had raised the possibility that no further negotiations could happen until after November’s mid-term elections in the U.S.
We can only speculate, but it's possible China doesn't want to talk again until political conditions make it more likely that the Trump regime will be willing to negotiate in good faith.
That day is never going to come. Trump isn't capable of negotiating in good faith even if his actions lead to Democratic victories, but that may be what the Chinese are thinking.
With the midterm elections more than two months away, it's possible we'll see Trump's next round of $200 billion in tariffs imposed before then unless they're explicitly delayed until after the election.
I get the impression that Trump believes imposing more tariffs will help Republicans, not hurt them, and I expect he'll only delay the tariffs until after the election if congressional Republican leaders convince him to.
If Trump delays the tariffs and Republicans lose the election, Trump will probably tell himself they lost because he delayed the tariffs, not because his entire regime is a raging dumpster fire.