US President Donald Trump speaks during a Diwali ceremonial lighting of the diya event at the White House in Washington, DC, US, on 13 November 2018. Getty Images/Bloomberg/Joshua Roberts
PTI
WASHINGTON, DC, 17 November 2018
US President Donald Trump has said he thinks there will be a trade deal with China, reiterating that he wants a deal which is fair and on a reciprocal basis. Trump’s statement came ahead of his meeting with his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping in Argentina later this month.
The US President kicked off the trade war in June by slapping additional tariffs on billions of dollars of Chinese exports, piling up pressure on China to reduce over USD 335 billion trade deficit in USD 710.4 billion bilateral trade.
“We have tariffs coming in on USD 250 billion worth of goods and we’re talking about billions and billions of dollars a month will flow into our country, and has already started flowing into our country, that comes from China,” Trump told reporters during a news conference.
“So China’s never been put in this position, and I don’t want to put them in a bad position. I want to put them in a great position. But it’s called reciprocal. We have to have reciprocal trade. We can’t have trade that’s meant for stupid people. And that’s the way they took advantage of our country. And we don’t have that anymore, and they understand that,” he said.
“I think a deal will be made. We’ll find out very soon,” Trump said in response to a question. China has sent to the US a list of 142 items which they are willing to negotiate. That’s good, he said.
“China wants to make a deal. They sent a list of things that they’re willing to do, which was a large list. It is just not acceptable to me yet, but at some point, I think we are doing extremely well with respect to China. I have a great respect for President Xi. I have a great respect for China,” Trump said.
Trump alleged that China has taken advantage of the United States for many, many years.
“I think that they’re going to come in, and we’re going to either open up China and make it fair, because it’s not fair right now. They do very little business with us, and we do a lot of business. It, you know, it’s just can’t be. Plus they have tremendous barriers. They have tremendous tariffs on us that we didn’t have on them,” he said.
But that’s all changed now, the President said.
“The US has put on tariffs on USD 250 billion worth of goods and we have another USD 267 billion to go if we want to.
“We may not have to do that. China would like to make a deal. Our country has done very well, and China, as you know, has not done very well. They’ve been down 30 per cent, 32 per cent and they’ve been down very substantially,” Trump added.
chewang Ngokhang, are you serious about saying you have never heard such strong words of humanitarian support for the downtrodden by Trump and Pence? Weren’t their rancid rhetoric, misogynistic, racist and bigotry clear from the family separation, attack on migrant caravan from South, et al. There are still people who find them and their actions to be bold benevolent.
If their empty rhetoric helps ease the suffering of Tibetans and Uyghurs, then they should have been free and happy by now by all the rhetoric the successive US Presidents have used. God save America!
@Phuntsok Paldenla:
President Donald Trump’s niche is business and wheeling and dealing but his administration went gung-ho, regarding the deprivation of fundamental human rights of the Tibetan and Uyghur peoples. The bold benevolent rhetoric was succinctly articulated by Vice President Mike Pence of the Trump administration, at the Hudson Institute on Oct. 4, 2018. Never before have I heard such strong words of humanitarian support for the downtrodden.
Trump is a businessman. He only thinks of business, and all his diplomacy clearly reflects that. The terminology he uses is all about business, deal, how much and what do I get. There’s no diplomacy, no concerns for human rights, climate change, democracy, et al.
The current US-China trade deadlock is bad for both the countries. Trump thinks that he has the upper hand, but in real sense not. China will suffer in exporting with the huge tariff he is imposing.
What’s there to reciprocate? What products the US could export to China? There’s nothing as US doesn’t produce anything that they could export to China. Weapons? China is self-sufficient with their own weapons productions. Bigger tariff on Chinese products will only raise the prices in the US markets. With already low buying capacity for the people in the US, people will suffer. This will impact the US imports. No imports means no business, no flow of cash, and ultimately the the US economy suffer.
China may have some knee-jerk effect, and the economy may hurt for a short term, but it will get adjusted. China must remain strong in this situation, and give a good challenge to the US. This is a big opportunity for China rather than fear to show their strength and also to assert their rightful place in the global arena.
What is wrong with running the country on business principles? I know that govt. is not supposed to turn a profit but it is also not supposed to burden its people with a huge, almost unconquerable deficit and give countries like China unfair advantage. Many people don’t seem to realize the gravity of the situation before Trump took over. What has been happening in America and Canada and some European countries. All they hear and know is the narrative churned out by the MSM. If you turn the TV on or go online you will find 99% news attacking Trump. Despite the media constantly launching an attack on Trump, his approval rating is 5 times higher than Obama at the same point in presidency. MSM will never talk about his achievements like the North and South Korea negotiations, jobless claims lowest level since 1969, More American working than ever before in history and manufacturing confidence all time high. Black support for Trump doubled to 29% and Black unemployment record low. He is the President Americans have been waiting for after the direction of the country in the last almost 2 decades. By his very excesses Trump alone is able to end many things that long ago should have ended.
What the POTUS is badgering about inequitable trade deals with China is nothing new. In fact, he has been vociferating about it since the late ’80s. Rather than commiserate over raw deals with China, president Donald Trump is persistently pursuing the art of the deal by commensurating proposals that are reciprocal in a two-way street — not confined to a one-way street — albeit which had been the case for decades.
In retrospect, Potus’ wheeling and dealing has generated favorable dividends, while China’s GDP is now projected to slip to 6.6% for this year and slip to 6.1% for 2019. As such, Xi Jinping now wishes to negotiate which president Trump is only happy to engage. What better time than at the G20 summit at Buenos Aires, Argentina end of this month?
It’s now clear that China wants to navigate in a different direction straying from west’s goals to liberalize China in the spirit of economic prosperity and more freedom for the people. This now appears to be wishful thinking, as China is strengthening its traction in Asia while honing its BRI in different parts of the globe, and seemingly pursuing its goal in line with a Confucius’ quote “There are not two suns in the sky, nor two sovereigns over the people.”