Much ceremony little substance between Xi and Trump

Gideon Long (0:01)

A lot of pageantry, but what did Donald Trump's summit with China's Xi Jinping actually achieve? It's World Business Express from the BBC World Service. I'm Gideon Long.

Plus a Greek shipping executive tells us about the perils of navigating the world's seas at the moment and tensions in Spain over spiralling housing costs.

The banquet is over. The White House crockery has been safely stashed away. Xi Jinping's state visit to Washington is drawing to a close. The Chinese president and his wife will fly home in the next few hours. At their summit, the US and China agreed a two month extension of their trade truce. But not much else, at least as far as we know. So how's the summit being viewed in the two countries themselves? This is how it was playing out on US TV networks on Friday morning.

SPEAKER_2 (0:55)

Well, this visit by the Chinese president has been heavy on ceremony so far, but questions remain about just how much progress was made in these meetings.

SPEAKER_3 (1:03)

Clearly, you know, rolling out the red carpet, the demonstration of American military power at the same time balanced, the good humor that was kind of shared.

SPEAKER_4 (1:12)

The discomfort around the optics only compounded by the fact that a number of Republican and Democratic lawmakers...

Gideon Long (1:19)

So that's the US. And what about in China? Carrie Allen is the BBC's China media analyst.

Kerry Allen (1:25)

It's been a huge story throughout the week when I've been looking at Chinese newspapers and what leading broadcasters are showing.

This has really been the only story that people have been seeing in China. And if there's one word that keeps on coming up and up again and again, it's historic that the meeting between Xi and Trump, less than six months after they last met when Trump visited Beijing in May, they're seeing this as a real way of China and US relations getting back on track. So there's a lot of enthusiasm for this summit. It's something that Chinese audiences are being shown every detail of, really being taken from Xi's plane landing on the 23rd, all the way through to the banquet that took place yesterday.

Gideon Long (2:11)

The BBC's Kerry Allen. Well, what are financial markets made of this summit between the leaders of the two biggest economies in the world? I'm joined by Randip Somal, fund manager at M&G Investment Management. Randip, so little hard news really to kind of get your hands on. Has there been any market reaction at all to the summit?

Randip Somal (2:29)

Not very much. I mean, the fact that a summit is occurring, the kind of language President Trump uses towards President Xi and calls him a friend, I think is on the margins, quite positive. And the trade truce has been extended for two months. But what we really need is something more substantive.

That will mean that in a month's time or a week's time, we don't get another tariff coming about.

Gideon Long (2:51)

Meanwhile, Randip, the oil price has fallen slightly today. What's going on? Why is that?

Randip Somal (2:56)

So oil peaked at $105 last week, and it was a culmination of a Saudi pipeline being blown up and three pumps being taken out, and also no movement forward on the straight of Hormuz. What we've seen now is the East-West pipeline in Saudi Arabia is back up and running, although not at capacity. And also the US and Iran are again negotiating on the opening of the straight of Hormuz. So the oil price is now just below $99.

Gideon Long (3:22)

Well, we'll keep an eye on that oil price, of course, in the coming days. Randip Somal, Fund Manager at M&G Investment Management. Thanks for joining us.

Well, an end to the conflict would be welcomed by the shipping industry, which has had a torrid time of late, but it's not just the Strait of Hormuz. You've got the threat of Huthy attacks in the Red Sea, the Russia-Ukraine conflict impacting trade through the Black Sea, and disruption in the Panama Canal due to the El Niño weather pattern. Eddie Valentes is the CEO of Pixis Tankers, a Greek shipping company that moves refined oil products like gasoline, diesel and kerosene around the world. So how do his ships navigate these global choppy waters?

Eddie Valentes (4:03)

We try to avoid the areas which are currently under, let's say, dispute.

We don't trade the Russia, Ukraine. We don't trade the Persian Gulf. We don't cross the Hormuz Strait. We try to avoid these areas.

Gideon Long (4:18)

But that must have a big impact on your business if there are certain parts of the world that you just can't go to, or you're not prepared to go to.