President Trump, in tweets, also said that negotiators made enough progress in weekend talks that he’s decided a meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping can take place at Mar-a-Lago in March.
President Trump on Sunday again put off a self-imposed deadline for raising tariffs on Chinese imported goods, saying negotiators for the United States and China made “substantial progress” in trade talks over the weekend.
The move by Trump to back away from a significant escalation in tariffs could be a sign that he may be preparing to end his months-long trade war with China. At a minimum, it clears the way for further negotiations and a possible face-to-face meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping next month, for the two leaders to wrap up a deal.
“As a result of these very productive talks, I will be delaying the U. S. increase in tariffs now scheduled for March 1,” Trump tweeted Sunday evening. “Assuming both sides make additional progress, we will be planning a Summit for President Xi and myself, at Mar-a-Lago, to conclude an agreement. A very good weekend for U. S. & China!”
“If all works well, we’re going to have some very big news over the next week or two,” Trump later told the nation’s governors as he hosted a black-tie dinner for them at the White House. “We still have a little ways to go,” he added moments later.
Trump’s announcement on Twitter came after U. S. negotiators held extended talks through the weekend with a senior-level delegation from China that arrived in Washington last week for the latest in a series of meetings in both countries. On Friday in the Oval Office, with top U. S. and Chinese trade officials looking on, Trump had said that he and Xi would probably have to meet at his Florida resort to work out the final issues.
Trump tweeted that the United States had made “substantial progress in our trade talks with China on important structural issues including intellectual property protection, technology transfer, agriculture, services, currency, and many other issues.”
But he provided no details of what had been tentatively agreed to on those complex issues that have bedeviled U. S.-China trade relations for decades.
Some analysts questioned whether Trump had any intention of stepping up pressure on the Chinese by raising tariffs March 1, given the president’s increasingly evident eagerness to cut a deal with China, even a weak one, after weeks of pressure from stock markets and from farmers and industries hit by China’s retaliatory tariffs.
