Trump says U.S. is not ready to make a trade deal with China

Roberta Rampton

WASHINGTON

Reuters

Published September 5, 2018

U.S. President Donald Trump said on Wednesday that the United States was not yet ready to come to an agreement over trade disputes with China but he said talks would continue.

The world’s two largest economies have slapped tariffs on $50-billion of each other’s goods in a tit-for-tat trade war, and Trump is considering imposing tariffs on another $200-billion in Chinese imports.

“We’ve done very well in negotiations with China but we’re not prepared to make the deal that they’d like to make,” Trump told reporters at the White House without elaborating on the details.

Story continues below advertisement

“We’ll continue to talk to China. I have great respect for (Chinese) President Xi (Jinping),” Trump said. “But right now we just can’t make that deal.”

Washington has demanded Beijing improve market access and intellectual property protections for U.S. companies, cut industrial subsidies and slash a $375-billion trade gap.

China has accused the Trump administration of applying hardline tactics and has called for more talks.

Report an error

Due to technical reasons, we have temporarily removed commenting from our articles. We hope to have this fixed soon. Thank you for your patience. If you are looking to give feedback on our new site, please send it along to feedback@globeandmail.com. If you want to write a letter to the editor, please forward to letters@globeandmail.com.

Welcome to The Globe and Mail’s comment community. This is a space where subscribers can engage with each other and Globe staff. Non-subscribers can read and sort comments but will not be able to engage with them in any way. Click here to subscribe.

If you would like to write a letter to the editor, please forward it to letters@globeandmail.com. Readers can also interact with The Globe on Facebook and Twitter .

Subscribe to comment Why do I need to subscribe?