Based on recent interviews, the U. S. president believes his tariffs have no downside. That should worry China.
On Saturday, December 1, Chinese President Xi Jinping and U. S. President Donald Trump will meet on the sidelines of the G-20 summit in Argentina. The world will be watching to see if the two leaders come away with a breakthrough to end their escalating trade war, which has seen the United States slap tariffs on $250 billion worth of Chinese goods, with Beijing responding in kind.
No less a figure than Larry Kudlow, the director of the White House’s National Economic Council, emphasized the importance of the discussions on November 27. “This is an opportunity, with the two presidents, to break through what have been disappointing discussions,” Kudlow said, according to Politico . “[…]This is a big deal, this meeting. And the stakes are very high.”
But after a brief spell of optimism, stemming from a Trump-Xi phone call in early November and the original announcement of their summit, pessimism is creeping back in. The most recent round of hand-wringing stems from comments made by Trump himself, which seem to throw cold water on a possible breakthrough.
Trump spoke to Wall Street Journal reporter Bob Davis earlier this week about U. S.-China trade relations, tariffs, and the possibility of a deal. In that interview, Trump set a high bar for a potential deal with China – a standard that is likely a nonstarter for Xi and the Chinese government.
“The only deal that would really be acceptable to me – other than obviously we have to do something on the theft of intellectual property, right – but the only deal would be China has to open up their country to competition from the United States,” Trump said.
