US-China trade deal gets tepid reception

Shipping containers, some marked 'China Shipping', are stacked at the Port of Los Angeles, the nation's busiest container port, in San Pedro, California. After nearly two-years of bare-knuckle battling, Washington and Beijing on Dec 13,at last announced a bargain to end the dispute. - AFP

WASHINGTON: US officials announced a truce in the trade war with China with much fanfare, but economists and trade experts call it largely a victory for Beijing.

After a dispute that raged for close to two years, with several fumbled efforts at a resolution, the US agreed to cancel planned tariffs and rollback others immediately, without a similar commitment from China to lift tariffs it imposed on the US.