The eighth round of economic and trade consultations between China and the United States, held in New York and Washington from Sept 20 to 23, produced a substantial list of agreements that are conducive to managing economic and trade relations between the world’s two largest economies.

After months of tariff threats, technology restrictions and countermeasures, which had escalated tensions, achieving those outcomes has not been easy.

The most important development is institutional, as it suggests an attempt to escape the cycle of fight and talk. Alongside a reciprocal tariff reduction agreement covering roughly $30 billion of goods on each side, the two teams have agreed to establish a Board of Trade, a Board of Investment and the China-US AI Dialogue. These are aimed at turning intermittent bargaining into more regular mechanisms for exchanges and consultations.

The Board of Trade will address the reciprocal tariff arrangement, under which duties on about 90 percent of the products concerned on each side are to fall to most-favored-nation level, according to China’s Ministry of Commerce. An agricultural working group has been established under the Board of Trade to tackle market access and regulatory barriers. The Board of Investment will provide a channel for discussing investment........

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