Trump Says His China Deadline Is ‘Up Here,’ Pointing to His Head
President Donald Trump said he had no deadline for China to return to trade talks, other than the one in his head.
(Bloomberg) -- President Donald Trump said he had no deadline for China to return to trade talks, other than the one in his head.
“I have no deadline,” Trump told reporters at a news conference Wednesday at the White House. “My deadline is what’s up here,” he added, pointing to his head.
Trade talks with Beijing broke off last month after the U.S. accused China’s leaders of reneging on provisions of a tentative agreement. Trump raised tariffs on about $200 billion of Chinese imports to 25%, and said he would expand the tariffs to cover another $325 billion in goods -- substantially everything the country exports to the U.S. -- unless Chinese leaders reverse course.
Trump said Tuesday he’s personally holding up a deal and won’t complete an agreement unless Beijing returns to terms negotiated earlier in the year. A day earlier, he threatened to raise tariffs if President Xi Jinping doesn’t meet with him at the upcoming Group of 20 summit in Japan.
“I would never take something that would be less than what we already had,” Trump said, noting an agreement to prevent intellectual property theft. “I think we’ll end up making a deal with China. We have a very good relationship, although it’s a little bit testy right now, as you would expect.”
Trump again claimed that Chinese exporters bear the burden of the tariffs, refuting the consensus of economists that the costs are largely born by U.S. citizens in the form of higher prices.
“They keep saying the American taxpayer pays for it,” Trump said. “No, no. Very little.”
Companies manufacturing products in China, he predicted, would soon begin moving to the U.S. -- including automaker General Motors Co.
On Tuesday, White House Acting Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney said that he expected Trump and Xi to meet at the G-20, but that he didn’t think the leaders would reach a final accord.
“We’ll figure out the deadline,” Trump said Wednesday. “Nobody can quite figure it out.”
To contact the reporters on this story: Josh Wingrove in Washington at jwingrove4@bloomberg.net;Justin Sink in Washington at jsink1@bloomberg.net
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Alex Wayne at awayne3@bloomberg.net, Joshua Gallu, Justin Blum
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