Trump Says Comprehensive China Deal May Not Happen by March 1
President Donald Trump said he's seeking a comprehensive deal with China, and he thinks it will happen, but he said he doesn't know "if you can get it down on paper by March 1." After that day, 10 percent tariffs on about 5,700 tariff lines from China are scheduled to increase to 25 percent. Trump, who spoke to reporters at the White House Jan. 31 at a ceremonial signing of an executive order to bolster Buy American rules, said, "This isn’t going to be a small deal with China. This is either going to be a very big deal, or it’s going to be a deal that we’ll just postpone for a little while."
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He didn't elaborate on how long a postponement might last, and whether tariffs would hold at current levels during the postponement. But he emphasized that a deal wherein the Chinese agree to buy more American exports but doesn't address longstanding issues like forced tech transfer will not fly. "This isn't where we're talking about they're going to buy some corn and that's it," he said.
On Twitter, earlier in the day, Trump said trade talks that began Jan. 29 in Washington "are going well with good intent and spirit on both sides." He said he planned to meet with China's Vice Premier Liu He and other officials at about 4 p.m. "No final deal will be made until my friend President Xi [Jinping], and I, meet in the near future to discuss and agree on some of the long standing and more difficult points," he tweeted.
Trump spoke appreciatively of a letter from China's president when the delegation visited him in the Oval Office late in the afternoon. The White House put out a statement shortly after about the course of talks that said, "while progress has been made, much work remains to be done."
The statement said March 1 is still "a hard deadline" and tariffs will go up if there isn't a satisfactory outcome by then. The talks covered forced tech transfer, intellectual property, tariff and non-tariff barriers for U.S. companies operating in China, cybertheft, excess capacity due to subsidies, Chinese tariffs on imports, and currency issues. "The two sides also discussed the need to reduce the enormous and growing trade deficit that the United States has with China. The purchase of United States products by China from our farmers, ranchers, manufacturers, and businesses is a critical part of the negotiations," the White House said.