President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping, who have acted lately like gunslingers in an old Western, holstered their weapons on Thursday and agreed to put off a climactic showdown between the world’s two biggest economies, for at least a year.

Their nearly two-hour, face-to-face meeting in South Korea was a welcome de-escalation. It’s certainly better when the United States and China are talking since they account for more than 40 percent of global GDP and a third of world trade. The cycle of tit-for-tat tariffs and export controls was threatening to harm both countries, who have grown overly interdependent.

But what came out of this meeting looks more like a temporary truce than a lasting peace pact. There was no press conference after their meeting and no joint communique

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