So the China – U.S. China Summit is finally over. As some teenagers used to say, this was a big nothingberger (at least for the U.S.).Was it?

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“On Friday, a group of consumers seeking refunds for “costs passed on to them in the form of higher prices” before the Supreme Court struck down President Donald Trump’s signature tariffs sued Amazon.com Inc. “[I]n a proposed class action filed in federal court in Seattle,” they “alleged that the e-commerce giant collected hundreds of millions of dollars in unlawful tariff costs by raising prices on imported goods before the Supreme Court had ruled.” Although other companies are facing similar lawsuits, the Amazon case is unique because the company is not seeking tariff refunds from the government. The consumers behind the new suit claim that the company “seeks to curry favor with Trump by allowing the federal government to retain the funds.” Scotus Blog (5.18.26).

“So the big meeting between presidents Donald Trump and Xi Jinping didn’t produce a whole lot on the day. Since  the last face-off in October, the two have shifted from frontal tariff assault to hand-to-hand supply chain skirmishes. Moreover, they are promising mechanisms of trade and investment co-operation that could deliver partial truces, depending on political will ….   In any case, it seems pretty clear that Xi is determining the pace, after having tamed Trump’s aggression last year …. The US claimed some rather unimpressive downpayments in the form of promised purchases of Boeing aircraft (if anything, fewer than had been expected), plus some supposed Chinese pledges of agricultural procurement …. If Trump tries to imitate Reagan’s strategy, the outcome will probably be even worse. For one, it’s hard to imagine Trump’s pacts enduring or being designed well. Whatever you think of his policies, Reagan ran a somewhat serious administration, staffed by grown-ups on the trade and economics side to whom he delegated power to negotiate and implement complex agreements. Trump has an extremely short attention span, an incoherent world view ….  In terms of strategy and tactics, Xi will run rings round Trump. And if at some point Trump realizes the whole game could be up and we’ll be back to all-out trade war …. It is also notable that Reagan’s protectionism at an industry level was followed by a renewed push on liberalization at the macro level, especially with the Uruguay round that ended up creating the World Trade Organization. Former US president Richard Nixon had a similar arc, the aggressive economic nationalism of his early years giving way to a multilateral push for trade deals in the Tokyo round.” Trade Secrets (May 18, 2026).