Gyeongju, South Korea – Presidents Donald Trump and Xi Jinping’s first face-to-face meeting since 2019 is expected to produce a deal to lower trade tensions between the United States and China.

But while Trump and Xi will be representing Washington and Beijing on Thursday, whatever they agree to on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit in South Korea will have ramifications for the entire global economy.

As the world’s two largest economies, the US and China are unmatched in their influence on global stability and prosperity.

Together, they account for 43 percent of global gross domestic product (GDP) and nearly half of global manufacturing output.

Their two-way trade came to some $585bn in 2024 alone.

A full-blown US-China trade war or decoupling woul

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