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Kyle Bass Says Substantial U.S.-China Deal Unlikely at This Time

Kyle Bass Says Substantial U.S.-China Deal Unlikely at This Time

(Bloomberg) --

Hedge fund manager Kyle Bass, founder of Hayman Capital Management, said a “substantial” U.S.-China trade agreement is unlikely at this stage.

The U.S. and China could reach an interim trade deal, “where the Chinese buy some more ag products from the U.S., and the U.S. decides to delay tariffs,” Bass said in a Bloomberg TV interview on Thursday. “The hard one is getting a more substantial agreement put together, which I don’t think will happen at this moment in time.”

The U.S. and China have begun two days of talks aimed at easing hostilities in their 18-month trade war, with both sides signaling cautious optimism in securing a partial deal that could lead to a temporary truce on tariffs. Trump said in a Twitter post that he plans to meet with Vice Premier Liu He on Friday, adding that it’s a “big day of negotiations with China. They want to make a deal, but do I?”

Bass said he didn’t think tomorrow’s meeting is “going to hold too much water in the long term.” The U.S. won’t fold and sign on to a trade deal that can’t measured and enforced, he said.

To contact the reporter on this story: Nishant Kumar in London at nkumar173@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Shelley Robinson at ssmith118@bloomberg.net, Patrick Henry

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