Trump, Xi consider Board of Trade
- Donald Trump and Xi Jinping are weighing a new U.S.-China “Board of Trade” before their May 14-15 Beijing summit, aimed at managing trade without tripping security fights. - The mechanism would try to steer deals like soybeans, beef, Boeing jets and rare earths while staying inside each side’s national-security red lines. - The push comes after a U.S. trade court killed Trump’s fallback 10% global tariff, raising pressure for a sturdier trade playbook.
Trade is back at the center of the Trump-Xi relationship. But this time the interesting part is not just tariffs or export bans. It is the idea of building a standing U.S.-China “Board of Trade” — basically a permanent channel for deciding what can still move between the two economies without turning every dispute into a national-security showdown. That idea has surfaced just days before Trump and Xi are due to meet in Beijing on May 14 and 15. ### What is this board supposed to do? The rough idea is simple. U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Trade Representative Jamieson Greer have floated a body that would identify categories of trade both sides can live with, while fencing off areas each government sees as too sensitive. Think of it as a traffic system, not a peace treaty — green lights for low-risk commerce, red lights for strategic choke points, and some yellow-light procedures for disputes. (thediplomat.com) ### Why now? Because Trump’s fallback tariff strategy just got punched in court. On May 7, the U.S. Court of International Trade ruled that his 10% global tariff plan was unlawful under Section 122 of the Trade Act of 1974. That was already Plan B after the Supreme Court had knocked out his broader tariff program earlier in 2026. So the White House now has a practical problem — it still wants leverage over trade, but its all-purpose tariff tools look shakier than they did a week ago. (thediplomat.com) ### What would actually be on the table? Mostly very concrete stuff. Trump wants visible purchases he can point to at home — poultry, beef, non-soy crops, energy, coal, and Boeing aircraft. One proposal in circulation is a Chinese commitment to buy 25 million metric tons of soybeans in each of the next three years. China, for its part, wants relief from U.S. tech restrictions and is pressing on access to semiconductors and chipmaking equipment, while Washington wants steadier Chinese exports of rare earths and other critical minerals. (politico.com) ### So is this just another dialogue? That is the big criticism. The point of the board only holds if it becomes a circuit breaker, not another talking shop. The deeper problem in U.S.-China trade is not that officials never meet. They meet all the time. The problem is that ordinary business fights — subsidies, data rules, ownership questions, export screening, industrial policy — keep getting pulled upward until they become tests of political resolve. A board that merely labels some goods safe and others unsafe would not fix that. (businesstimes.com.sg) ### Why is that escalation so hard to stop? Because the two systems run on different assumptions. The U.S. treats markets, private ownership, and security review one way. China treats state direction, industrial policy, data control, and strategic sectors another way. So even when a company moves operations abroad or changes legal structure, the political question does not disappear. Regulators still ask where the technology came from, where the data sits, who trained the engineers, and whether the asset matters strategically. (thediplomat.com) ### Where does Lighthizer fit in? Robert Lighthizer is shaping the argument around what comes after the old trade order. Speaking in Salt Lake City on May 7, he said the post-World War II system no longer works and argued that industrial policy — not tariffs alone — is now the real obstacle to balanced trade. That matters because it shifts the debate. The question is no longer just how high tariffs should be. It is what kind of framework can manage trade with a rival that is also a manufacturing superpower. (thediplomat.com) ### What should readers watch next week? Watch whether the summit produces a mechanism with rules, timelines, and dispute procedures — or just a name. If Trump and Xi come out with specific lanes for agriculture, aviation, minerals, and tech, the board could become a real operating tool. If they do not, then “Board of Trade” is just a nicer label for the same unstable truce. (deseret.com) ### Bottom line? The real news is not that Washington and Beijing want more trade. They always do. The real news is that both sides seem to be groping toward a structure that can keep commerce alive even when trust is gone. If that sounds modest, it is. But right now modest may be the whole game. (thediplomat.com) (businesstimes.com.sg)
