If a handshake agreement holds, it will merely undo some of the damage from the trade war that President Trump started.

The tentative deal between the United States and China may represent a retreat from the worst-case scenario of a total collapse of trade between the world's two biggest economies, but it creates more problems than it solves.

United States and Chinese officials said they had agreed on a framework for a trade truce, which removed China's export restrictions on rare earths.