recession were disappearing. But Trump,
speaking at the Group of Seven meeting
of major economies in France, said serious
negotiations would begin.
“We are going to start talking very seriously,”
Trump said. He said the Chinese “mean business.”
Trump gave no details. Negotiators already were
scheduled to meet next month in Washington
following talks in Shanghai in July that ended
with no signs of progress.
The Chinese central bank allowed the yuan
to decline to 7.1468 to the dollar in tightly
controlled trading. It was a relatively modest
change from Friday’s low point of 7.0927 but its
weakest rate since January 2008. The yuan has
lost 6.5% from this year’s high on Feb. 28.
Chinese leaders have promised to avoid
“competitive devaluation” to help exporters in
the face of Trump’s tariff hikes. But regulators are
trying to make the state-set exchange rate more
market oriented. That allows investor jitters
about the tariff war and its impact on Chinese
economic growth to push the yuan lower.
Last week, Trump announced more tariff
increases and said he was ordering American
companies to stop dealing with China. He said
later he was threatening to use emergency
powers under a 1977 law that targets rogue
regimes, terrorists and drug traffickers.
That came after Beijing announced tariff hikes
on $75 billion of American imports in retaliation
for earlier U.S. increases.
“This tit-for-tat escalation shows how unlikely
a trade deal and de-escalation have become,”
Louis Kuijs of Oxford Economics said in a report.
Chinese leaders have hardened their position,
especially after Trump imposed curbs in May on
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