Trump gloats over China growth slump
WASHINGTON/BEIJING U.S. President Donald Trump on Monday seized on slowing economic growth in China as evidence that U.S. tariffs were having “a major effect” and warned that Washington could pile on more pressure as bilateral trade talks sputtered along.
Data released earlier on Monday showed growth in the world’s second-largest economy had slowed to 6.2 per cent in the second quarter, its weakest pace in at least 27 years, amid ongoing trade pressure from the United States.
“This is why China wants to make a deal with the U.S., and wishes it had not broken the original deal in the first place,” Trump tweeted.
U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin later said he and U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer would speak with their Chinese counterparts by phone again this week as part of the recently resumed trade talks.
A face-to-face meeting hinges on progress in the yearlong trade war, he added.
“To the extent that we make significant progress, I think there’s a good chance we’ll go there later,” he told reporters at a rare White House news briefing ahead of his trip to meet with finance ministers from the Group of Seven nations.
Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping last month agreed to another truce in the yearlong trade spat between the world’s two largest economies. That agreement, announced after the leaders of the world’s two largest economies met in Osaka, Japan, was aimed at kickstarting stalled negotiations, but no deadline has been set for the process to conclude.