President Donald Trump said Friday that China was ready to make a deal to defuse trade tensions, so he might not have to punish the country with more import tariffs.
A deal to resolve the dispute would be a huge breakthrough on the issue that has dominated much of Trump’s two years in office, blowback from which threatens to take the steam out of the US economy.
“China wants to make a deal,” Trump told reporters. “They sent a list of things that they are willing to do.”
While the offer is not acceptable yet, he said he was optimistic for an agreement to get “reciprocal” trade.
Trump this year has imposed steep tariffs on $250 billion of Chinese goods and has threatened to hit the remaining $267 billion in products the US imports from the world’s number two economy each year.
US companies and farmers have complained of lost business and rising prices for key components as a result of the trade friction and that was a factor in some of the contests in the midterm congressional elections early this month.
“I think a deal will be made and we will find out very soon,” Trump said, noting Beijing’s list included 142 items and includes “a lot of the things we asked for.”
“Some things were left off. We will probably get them, too,” he said.
But the statements seemed to contradict comments from Trump’s Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross, who just hours earlier had said a deal with Beijing before January was “impossible.”
Trump is due to meet with China’s President Xi Jinping late this month in Buenos Aires on the sidelines of the Group of 20 leaders summit.