For most of the past year, the U.S. and China have failed to make significant headway in resolving issues at the heart of an escalating trade war. Another 90 days is unlikely to change much.

Donald Trump and Xi Jinping called a truce at a high-stakes meeting on Saturday night in Argentina, with the U.S. president agreeing to postpone a planned tariff hike on Chinese goods for three months in return for greater purchases of American goods. The arrangement provides breathing space to both leaders as they face slumping stock markets and economic warning signs.

While the detente is a welcome relief to equity investors, the fundamental divide between the world's biggest economies is still vast. Negotiations have long been stuck over U.S. demands for deep structural reforms such as stopping forced technology transfers, enforcing intellectual property rights, and ending state subsidies for strategic industries—all of which China sees as an American strategy to thwart its rise as a global power.