An SCMP article that is a few hours.....>

MARKET TALK: An SCMP article that is a few hours old is getting a re-airing at

present: "America's top trade negotiator says he doesn't know what the end game

is with China amid a two-year trade war involving hundreds of billions of

dollars in tariffs and untold costs to farmers and consumers. US Trade

Representative Robert Lighthizer, speaking on Thursday, also defended what

critics have characterised as America's blunt, counterproductive and

tariff-obsessed trade policy, arguing that the administration's uncompromising

stance toward China has been effective and overdue. "I don't know what the end

goal is," Lighthizer said at an event sponsored by London-based Chatham House.

"Right now we need to stop an aggressive force." "We have to figure out new

rules - what phase one is is an attempt to find those kinds of rules - and these

are setting aside all the aggression in India and in Hong Kong," he added."