China, US agree to win-win energy deal

China and the United States reached a consensus on Saturday that there will be no trade war and agreed to take measures to decrease the US trade deficit by, for example, China significantly increasing purchases of US goods and services. A joint statement issued after Saturday's round of Sino-US trade talks also said the two sides agreed on "meaningful increases" in US exports of agricultural and energy products, and greater efforts to increase bilateral trade in manufactured goods and services.

The agreement between the world's two largest economies is enough to make the rest of the world heave a sigh of relief.

China's decision to import more US agricultural and energy products is also in line with the principle of win-win benefits. As the world's largest energy importer, China can narrow, if not eradicate, its energy price gaps with major industrialized countries if it can continuously import fuels from the US at a reasonable price, and thus eliminate one of the biggest factors that could raise its manufacturing costs and undermine the sector's competitiveness in the global market.