WASHINGTON: President Donald Trump said on Friday (Feb 15) that trade negotiations with China were going «extremely well» and again offered the possibility of extending…
WASHINGTON: President Donald Trump said on Friday (Feb 15) that trade negotiations with China were going «extremely well» and again offered the possibility of extending the Mar 1 deadline for a sharp rise in punitive tariffs.
Senior officials completed two days of high-stakes talks in Beijing on Friday as they try to avert the US threat to more than double tariffs on US$200 billion in Chinese goods, which would be an unwelcome shock to the world’s second largest economy as it already has shown signs of slowing.
«It is going extremely well,» Trump said of the talks.
«The tariffs are hurting China very badly. They don’t want them and frankly if we can make the deal it would be my honour to remove them,» he told reporters at the White House.
The president confirmed his comments earlier this week that he might be willing to hold off on increasing tariffs to 25 per cent from the current 10 per cent, if Washington and Beijing are close to finalising an agreement to deal with US complaints about unfair trade and theft of American technology.
«There is a possibility that I will extend the date,» he told reporters. «If I see we’re close to a deal or the deal is going in the right direction, I would do that.»
After progress in the talks in Beijing, a fourth round of negotiations is scheduled for next week in Washington.
