Sep 10, 2019
President Donald Trump said on Monday that China is ready
to come back to the negotiating table and the two countries will
start talking very seriously.
Speaking at the G-7 summit in Biarritz in France, Trump praised
Chinese President Xi Jinping and welcomed his desire for a
deal.
“China called last night our top trade people and said ‘let’s get
back to the table’ so we will be getting back to the table and I
think they want to do something. They have been hurt very badly but
they understand this is the right thing to do and I have great
respect for it. This is a very positive development for the world,”
Trump said.
“I think we are going to have a deal,” he added. “They have supply
chains that are unbelievably intricate and people are all leaving
and they are going to other countries, including the United States
by the way, we are going to get a lot of them too.”
Meanwhile in Beijing, Foreign Ministry spokesman Geng Shuang said
he was not aware that a phone call between the two sides had taken
place.
When pressed on the details of the call, Trump said he didn’t want
to elaborate and reiterated that the U.S. had multiple calls at the
highest levels with the Chinese.
“I don’t want to talk about calls. We have had calls at the highest
level but I don’t want to talk about that. The vice chairman put
out a statement last night that was a statement and saying that he
wants to make a deal and he wants calm,” Trump said.
“Our economy is phenomenal, best it has ever been and that’s
despite the trade deals. When we get these deals done our country
will be transformed, it will be monetarily transformed. It is such
a difference from the horrible, horrible one-sided deals that we
had in the past. And frankly, past administrations should be
ashamed of themselves for allowing that,” Trump said.
On Sunday, Trump said the U.S. and China were getting along very
well and were talking.
“Actually we are getting along very well with China right now, we
are talking. I think they want to make a deal much more than I do.
I’m getting a lot of money in tariffs its coming in by the
billions. We’ve never gotten 10 cents from China, so we will see
what happens,” Trump said on Sunday.
Before leaving for the G-7, Trump said he would raise existing
duties on $250 billion in Chinese products to 30% from 25% on Oct.
1. Additionally, he said, tariffs on another $300 billion of
Chinese goods, which start to take effect on Sept. 1, will now be
15% instead of 10%.
At the G-7, Trump said Sunday he could declare the escalating
U.S.-China trade war as a national emergency if he wanted to. “In
many ways this is an emergency,” Trump said of the ongoing trade
battle.
“I could declare a national emergency, I think when they steal and
take out and intellectual property theft anywhere from $300 billion
to $500 billion a year and when we have a total lost of almost a
trillion dollars a year for many years,” Trump said, adding that he
had no plan right now to call for a national emergency.
U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin doubled down on the White
House’s latest punch in the trade war by calling out Beijing for
unfair trade practices. “We do not have free trade with them,”
Mnuchin said Sunday on the sidelines of the G-7 meeting in
France.
“It’s a one way street: They have free entrance into our markets,
our investments, our companies and we do not have the same thing
there. That’s the only reason why we are in this situation with
China. If China would agree to a fair and balanced relationship, we
would sign that deal in a second,” he added.