Framework Implementation Dulls Chaotic Trade Wars: Supply Lines

President Donald Trump returned to the White House in January pledging to overhaul the US’s trade relationships using his brash style of frenzied deal-making.

Yet the messaging coming from talks with both China and the European Union sounds more like the way trade negotiations typically unfold: incrementally, glacially, exhaustingly and with big contingencies. Also with frameworks — expect lots of those.

A month after announcing a 90-day truce in Geneva, here’s how US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick described the deliverables from 20 hours of talks in London with China’s trade negotiators this week:

“The two largest economies in the world have reached ...