“Jaw, jaw is better than war, war” is one of those well known Winston Churchill quotes that Churchill apparently never said. (Or at least not exactly like that.) But it’s still a pretty catchy phrase and not a bad first instinct. So from that perspective, perhaps, the results from the US-China trade negotiations in Buenos Aires are to be welcomed. Talks resulting in an agreement for more talks over the next three months is a pretty good alternative to a severe intensification in the ongoing trade conflict between the nations.

So here we are: The American tariff rate on $200 billion in imports from China will stay at 10 percent rather than rising to 25 percent. And China, according to the Trump administration, will “purchase a very substantial amount of agricultural, industrial and energy, products.”

But remember that what emerged from Argentina was not the prevention of conflict. The “war, war” has already started and restraint from escalation is not the same as peace. What’s more, the prospects for peace are murky as best. Although Wall Street seemed to like what the two presidents cooked up, Goldman Sachs noted “no concrete progress on the other important issues of market access, IPR protection, cyber attacks, and forced technology transfer,” not all of which Beijing will even concede are problems.  How those issues are approached in the coming week will determine whether this entire conflict is about deals and deficits or about subsidies and strategy.