Mubasher: US President Donald Trump on Tuesday held out the possibility of an extension of the 90-day trade truce on which he and his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping agreed.

“The negotiations with China have already started,” President Trump said via Twitter, adding “unless extended, they will end 90 days from the date of our wonderful and very warm dinner with President Xi in Argentina.”

Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer would head the negotiations instead of Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, with whom he would work closely as well as the White House National Council director Larry Kudlow and trade adviser Peter Navarro, Trump said.

In a meeting on the sidelines of the Group of 20 (G20) summit on Saturday, Trump and Xi agreed on a truce in the trade war between the US and China in which tariffs led to the disruption of the flow of hundreds of billions of dollars in goods between the world’s two largest economies.

The two presidents agreed on holding off on levying additional tariffs for 90 days starting from 1 December, while they proceed with negotiations with the aim of resolving their trade conflict.

Washington expects Beijing to take immediate steps to cut duties on US auto imports and end intellectual property theft and forced technology transfers, as both sides move toward a broader trade agreement, Kudlow said on Monday.

The appointment of Lighthizer places one of the US administration most hardline critics of China in charge.