The US President Donald Trump is set to meet his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping today and they will hold meetings over the next two days in President Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida. The future of the global economy would depend a lot on the relations between these two superpowers. President Trump has been very critical of the trade deficits that the United States have been running with China and he has called for creating a level playing field for US companies by negotiating the bilateral trade deal between the United States and China. The US ran a trade deficit of more than $500 billion with China last year. Two top aides for President Trump, the treasury secretary Steven Mnuchin, and the Commerce secretary Wilbur Ross have expressed a similar desire. President Trump has also been calling for greater cooperation from China in order to tame North Korea and has called for the Chinese to reduce their ambitions in the South China Sea.

These topics are likely to get discussed over the next two days. While China is expected to use its economic prowess and North Korea as a bargaining chip, president Trump’s biggest weapon will be trades between the two. A sharp cut down of deficits with China, US runs the risk of triggering economic turmoil in China and that in turn runs the risk of retriggering global deflation. China is the second largest economy in the world and the biggest consumer of commodities. Hence a slowdown in China is in nobody’s interest.

The future of the global economy would in the hands of these two leaders as they meet face to face for the very first time.