China-US tariff resolution likely to drag on, Franklin Templeton says

China is likely to be among the last countries to reach a trade agreement with the US to reduce tariffs, according to fund manager Franklin Templeton.

It took 18 months to finalise a US-China trade deal during US President Donald Trump’s first term, Yi Ping Liao, a portfolio manager and senior research analyst with the company’s emerging markets equity team, said during an online briefing on Wednesday.

China might “face the highest level of complexity in negotiations, because there are multiple issues aside from trade that need to be resolved”, Liao added, without elaborating on the issues.

On Tuesday, Trump appeared to soften his stance on the escalating tariff war primarily targeting China, saying that in the event of negotiations, levies on China would “come down substantially, but it won’t be zero”.

At a White House event, he said that the current level of 145 per cent was “very high” and that eventual tariffs would not “be anywhere near that high”. A timeline for any change was not made clear.

Trump’s sweeping tariffs on countries around the world have sent global markets tumbling, triggering widespread economic uncertainty.

“I think you can sum up the first 100 days of the Trump 2.0 administration in really one word: uncertainty,” said Grant Bowers, portfolio manager with Franklin Equity Group.