WASHINGTON – President Donald Trump boasted last Friday that trade talks between the U. S. and China were going well and that a “historic, monumental deal”…
WASHINGTON – President Donald Trump boasted last Friday that trade talks between the U. S. and China were going well and that a “historic, monumental deal” was near.
By Sunday, he was threatening to slap tariffs on every Chinese product that enters the U. S.
What’s behind his sudden shift in rhetoric?
Some analysts said Trump was seeking to pressure Beijing into signing off on a high-stakes trade deal. Others saw Trump’s tweeted threats as a sign that long-time talks with the Chinese are falling apart.
“It’s a pressure tactic designed to try to get an outcome that you can then live with in terms of your own domestic factors,” said Stapleton Roy, a former U. S. ambassador to China and founding director of the Kissinger Institute on China and the United States.
“I think we are still within reach of an agreement,“ Roy said. „I think both sides need an agreement.”
The short-term fate of the talks should be known soon.
A week after difficult negotiations in Beijing, the Chinese government announced Tuesday it would send a trade delegation to Washington to meet with U. S. counterparts on Thursday and Friday. The delegation will include its key player: Liu He, China’s vice premier and lead trade negotiator.
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Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin and U. S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer told reporters that the Chinese backed off certain commitments last week, and that’s what inspired Trump to make his tariff threat in his Sunday tweet.
Trump, meanwhile, continued to attack Chinese financial practices as financial markets declined over the prospect of a failed trade negotiation and a renewed trade war.
„The United States has been losing, for many years, 600 to 800 Billion Dollars a year on Trade,“ Trump tweeted Monday. „With China we lose 500 Billion Dollars. Sorry, we’re not going to be doing that anymore!“
Erin Ennis of the U.
