The Trump administration’s tentative trade deal with Chinese negotiators is not worth the paper it is not printed on. It is just another instalment in the cycle of stop-start negotiations and tit-for-tat tariffs that has inflicted enormous damage on the US and world economy.

The best that can be said for the prospective deal is that it forestalls the next US tariff increase scheduled for October 15, which would have seen the 25 per cent tariff on $US250 billion ($368 billion) of Chinese imports raised to 30 per cent.