CHINA MUST STRIKE TRADE DEAL SOON: US
RAISING PRESSURE Don’t think someone will replace me, US president says
President Donald Trump has warned China it should strike a trade deal now, or an agreement would be “far worse for them if it has to be negotiated in my second term”. The two countries are locked in a bitter trade battle.
US President Donald Trump has warned China that the deal it rejected last week to end the escalating trade war will get “far worse” if its intention was to wait out his first term in office and engage a more malleable successor.
Talks broke down on Friday due to China’s reluctance to concede the US demand that it must codify into law the changes it was undertaking to make as part of the deal and detail them, which Beijing saw as a sovereignty issue. The US has since 12:01 am on Friday hiked tariff on $200 billion worth of Chinese goods from 10% to 25%. Trump has threatened to extend the new rate to $325 bn worth more of Chinese goods, covering practically all imports from China.
Though Trump wants a deal just as badly—the tariff hikes will push up prices in the US and an average American family could be paying $767 more a year according to one estimate — he probably feels emboldened to stay the course because of the surging economy and bipartisan support to take the fight to China.
“I think that China felt they were being beaten so badly in the recent negotiation that they may as well wait around for the next election, 2020, to see if they could get lucky & have a Democrat win,” Trump wrote on Twitter on Saturday. But, he said, the “only problem is that they know I am going to win (best economy & employment numbers in US history, & much more), and the deal will become far worse for them if it has to be negotiated in my second term”.
Trump has accused Democrats of failing to stop the Chinese trade juggernaut and said the Chinese would rather negotiate with former vice-president Joe Biden, who is running for the Democratic presidential nomination to take on Trump in 2020.
Trump’s accusation that Democrats were soft on China is a mischaracterisation of their position. Many of them feel just as strongly about it as him, and have fully backed his bare-knuckles fight the Chinese. “Hang tough on China, President @realDonaldTrump,” Chuck Schumer, the top democrat in US senate wrote on twitter ahead of the talks that failed Friday. “Don’t back down. Strength is the only way to win with China.”
› They know I am going to win... and the deal will become far worse for them if it has to be negotiated in my second term. Would be wise for them to act now DONALD TRUMP, US president