"When I talked to the president of the United States, he's not talking about going beyond March," Amb. Robert Lighthizer said<\/b>
\nU. S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer said March 1 marks a \u00ab\u00a0hard deadline\u00a0\u00bb for the U. S. and China to reach a firm trade agreement.
Mr. Trump claimed China had agreed to \u00ab\u00a0reduce and remove\u00a0\u00bb tariffs at a meeting at the G-20 summit in Argentina, but China has been less reluctant to say so \u2014 and U. S. administration officials had different takes on how firm any agreement with China was. The two countries are continuing talks for 90 days.
\u00ab\u00a0As far as I’m concerned, it’s a hard deadline,\u00a0\u00bb Lighthizer said on \u00ab\u00a0Face the Nation\u00a0\u00bb Sunday. \u00ab\u00a0When I talked to the president of the United States, he’s not talking about going beyond March. He’s talking about getting a deal. If there is a deal to be gotten, we want to get it in the next 90 days.\u00a0\u00bb
Those talks, however, have been complicated by the arrest in Canada of Meng Wanzhou, the chief financial officer of Chinese telecom firm Huawei. China has summoned the U. S. ambassador to protest her detention and likely extradition to the U. S.
Lighthizer said he disagreed with those like Republican Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida who want to ban Chinese telecom companies from doing business in the U. S. He said he considers the issue of Meng’s arrest to be unrelated to trade negotiations.
\u00ab\u00a0Well, it’s my view that it shouldn’t really have much of an impact,\u00a0\u00bb Lighthizer said of Meng’s arrest. \u00ab\u00a0I can understand from the Chinese perspective how they would see it that way. This is a criminal justice matter. It is totally separate from anything that I work on or anything that the trade policy people in the administration work on. So, for us, it’s unrelated, it’s criminal justice. We have a lot of very big, very important issues. We’ve got serious people working on them, and I don’t think they’ll be affected by this.\u00a0\u00bb
Earlier this year, Rubio introduced a bill to attempt to ban some Chinese telecom companies. It was unsuccessful. But Rubio told \u00ab\u00a0Face the Nation\u00a0\u00bb host Margaret Brennan he’ll bring up similar legislation in the next session of Congress.
\u00ab\u00a0We have to understand Chinese companies are not like American companies,\u00a0\u00bb Rubio said. \u00ab\u00a0When the Chinese ask a telecom company, ‘We want you to turn over all the data you’ve gathered in the country you’re operating in,’ they will do it. No court order. Nothing like that. They will just do it. They have to. We need to understand that.\u00a0\u00bb
On another subject, Lighthizer demurred when asked if he wants to be Mr. Trump’s next chief of staff. The president abruptly announced to reporters Saturday afternoon that chief of staff John Kelly will be leaving at the end of the year. The New York Times reported Lighthizer is a contender for the role if Mr. Trump doesn’t choose Nick Ayers, Vice President Mike Pence’s chief of staff.
\u00ab\u00a0I’m flattered that the president wants me to be United States Trade Representative working closely with him and I hope to accomplish the goals that he set out for me in that job,\u00a0\u00bb Lighthizer said, adding that nobody in the White House has approached him about the job.<\/p>\n