Will We Know if Trump Wins the China Trade Talks?

President Donald Trump’s m.o. in any fight is to declare victory regardless of the outcome. He may soon do it again on China trade. In this case, he could claim a victory of sorts, but at the expense of much bigger prizes.

This weekend, citing what he called progress in trade talks, Trump extended a March 1 deadline for a deal with China, delaying a huge spike in tariffs on Chinese goods. Markets were briefly heartened by this, and they should be: Trump’s tariffs were a bad idea, and the ones already in place are hurting American businesses and consumers far more than those in China, Bloomberg’s editorial board writes. The bigger issues between the U.S. and China still must be addressed, but avoiding more tariffs is a win by itself.