President Trump’s top trade negotiator told lawmakers that he could not predict success in resolving the trade war, offering a more cautious assessment than other administration officials.
WASHINGTON — President Trump’s top trade negotiator raised doubts on Tuesday that a trade agreement with China was within reach, saying that “major issues” must still be resolved and that it was impossible at this point to predict success.
Robert Lighthizer, the United States trade representative, told lawmakers on the Senate Finance Committee that he could not predict when, or even if, a deal would be reached but said that he hoped the negotiations were in the “final weeks.”
“I don’t know when something’s going to happen,” Mr. Lighthizer said. “We’re either going to have a good result or we’re going to have a bad result before too long.”
Mr. Lighthizer said there would be no agreement if outstanding issues were not resolved in “a way that’s beneficial to the United States.”
His comments contrasted sharply with Mr. Trump’s more optimistic take last month, when he said that “significant progress” had been made in resolving the yearlong trade war with China and that he would not raise tariffs on Chinese goods. Mr. Trump predicted that he would soon meet with President Xi Jinping of China for a signing ceremony at Mar-a-Lago, the president’s Florida resort.
But administration officials have since become less sanguine about the potential for a quick deal, and Mr. Trump has indicated that he is prepared to “walk” from a deal if it is not in the United States’ interest.
On Monday, a White House spokeswoman said no date had been set for a signing ceremony. On Tuesday, Mr. Lighthizer would not commit to a timetable for wrapping up the talks.
China has been wary about committing to a meeting between Mr. Xi and Mr. Trump before a firm agreement is in place. While the United States and China have made progress on the talks, Beijing continues to resist demands by the Trump administration that the Chinese believe could undermine national sovereignty or economic development.
Republicans and Democrats on the Finance Committee pressed Mr. Lighthizer for details about how or whether the White House would end a tariff war that has taken a toll on financial markets and the United States’ agricultural sector. Mr. Lighthizer said the two countries were still trying to work out how an agreement would be enforced and how far the United States would go in rolling back Mr.
