The president said that China had offered to make some changes to its trade practices, but that the list did not go far enough to resolve the United States\u2019 concerns.<\/b>
\nWASHINGTON \u2014 President Trump said on Friday that a list of trade concessions offered by Chinese officials in recent days was not sufficient to resolve concerns about Beijing\u2019s trade practices, suggesting that a deal remains unlikely when Mr. Trump meets with President Xi Jinping of China this month.
In remarks at the White House, Mr. Trump expressed optimism that an agreement with China would eventually be reached and acknowledged that negotiations had intensified in recent weeks ahead of the Group of 20 summit meeting in Argentina. But while Beijing has begun offering concessions, Mr. Trump said they did not go far enough to change China\u2019s unfair trade practices.
\u201cThey sent a list of things they are willing to do. A large list. It\u2019s not acceptable to me yet,\u201d Mr. Trump said.
China recently gave Trump administration officials a list of about 140 concessions they were willing to make, which Mr. Trump described as \u201ca pretty complete list.\u201d But he said the list did not include \u201cfour or five\u201d large items that needed to be resolved before a deal could be reached.
\u201cSome things were left off. We will probably get them, too,\u201d Mr. Trump said.
The United States has accused China of engaging in a range of unfair trade practices, including restricting access to its market, pressuring American companies doing business in China to hand over valuable technology, cyberespionage and outright intellectual property theft.
The administration has given China a list of more than 100 demands, including eliminating the theft of intellectual property, easing joint venture requirements for companies doing business in China and agreeing to reduce the bilateral trade deficit. China has frustrated American officials in the past by repackaging reforms that they intend to make, or have already made, as major concessions.
\u201cI think he just wants to say he\u2019s optimistic or he has no understanding of what we\u2019re trying to accomplish,\u201d said Derek Scissors, a China expert at the American Enterprise Institute who has seen a copy of the Chinese list. \u201cThe list is the same thing that they said they were offering in April.\u201d
The president said either China would \u201copen up\u201d or his administration would impose tariffs on an additional $267 billion of Chinese imports. The United States has already imposed tariffs on $250 billion worth of Chinese imports, and the rate of some of the levies is set to increase to 25 percent in January, from 10 percent. China has retaliated with tariffs of its own on American goods.
United States businesses have complained about Mr. Trump\u2019s tariffs, which are raising costs for companies that import materials from overseas, disrupting supply chains and making it more difficult to sell American goods in China. But Mr. Trump continues to incorrectly assert that China is paying the tariffs and depositing money into the United States Treasury.
\u201cWe have tariffs on $250 billion worth of goods and these are \u2014 we are talking about billions and billions of dollars a month will flow into our country and already started flowing in. It comes from China,\u201d he said.
While Mr. Trump struck a hopeful tone about the prospect of a deal, he continued to express frustration about the trade relationship with China. He said that his predecessors allowed \u201cmoney to be sucked out of our country by the billions.\u201d
\u201cWe can\u2019t have trade that\u2019s made for stupid people,\u201d Mr. Trump said. \u201cThat\u2019s the way they took advantage of our country. We don\u2019t have that anymore. They understand that. I think a deal will be made and we will find out very soon.\u201d
But the ability to get to a deal could be somewhat hamstrung by warring factions within Mr. Trump\u2019s inner circle. The president\u2019s economic team has been sparring in recent days over how to proceed with the China talks, which have yielded little progress in the last 18 months. Last week, Peter Navarro, a top trade adviser, warned in a speech that Wall Street executives were trying to insert themselves into the negotiations and saddle the president with a bad deal.
On Tuesday, Mr. Trump\u2019s economic director, Larry Kudlow, rebuked Mr. Navarro and called his remarks \u201cway off base\u201d and unauthorized.
Other administration officials have tried to temper expectations for the bilateral meeting between Mr. Trump and Mr. Xi that is expected to take place at the G-20. Wilbur Ross, the commerce secretary, told Bloomberg on Thursday that it was \u201cimpossible\u201d to reach a formal deal with China by January but that they would try to agree on a big-picture framework for additional negotiations.
Treasury Department officials have been working with their counterparts in China to lay the foundation for the talks between Mr. Trump and Mr. Xi.<\/p>\n