After nearly two years of a bruising trade war, US President Donald Trump signed a trade deal with China on Wednesday that provides the president with political bragging rights but allows both sides to put off the most difficult disputes until after the November election.

Despite the ceremonial pomp of a White House signing event and Trump’s extravagant tweets on his achievement, the hard reality of the so-called Phase 1 trade agreement is that it only begins to address the potentially dangerous gulf between the US and China on trade and economic policy.