US-China trade deal might wait until after 2020 election, says US commerce chief Wilbur Ross
- Commerce secretary confirms comments Donald Trump made in London about possible extended timeline for trade talks
- ‘No big meetings scheduled right now’ and no signing date
US Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross said on Tuesday that President Donald Trump may let trade talks with China slide for another year to remove pressure on the US leader to finalise an agreement.
“I think he’s serious in this regard,” Ross told CNBC in response to a question about Trump’s comment earlier in the day that “I like the idea of waiting until after the election for the China deal”.
“That takes off the table something that they may think gives them some leverage,” Ross said. “Once the election occurs, and the president seems to be in very good shape for the election, once it occurs and he’s back in, now that’s no longer a distraction that could detract from our negotiating position.
“We have the leverage because we have much more ammunition left against them than they have against us,” Ross added. “It’s one of the few good things about a trade deficit, is you have more bullets you can fire than they have that they can fire. They’re pretty well out of bullets.”
Election day will be on November 3.
Trump’s comments, which he made at a Nato summit in London, put a damper on hopes that a “phase one” deal might be completed by December 15, when another batch of US tariffs is scheduled to go into effect, putting an extra 15 per cent on US$156 billion of Chinese goods. US stocks fell sharply after Trump said he put off a deal with China until next year.
Trump said last week that Washington was in the “final throes” of an agreement aimed at defusing its 16-month trade war with China, a few days after China’s President Xi Jinping expressed his desire for a deal.
That agreement would include China’s purchase of up to US$50 billion worth of US soybeans in exchange for a halt in further tariff increases, according to details announced by both sides in October.
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“We don’t have a breakthrough until it’s in black and white on paper, signed, sealed and delivered,” Ross said on Tuesday. “What we had was an agreement at the 40,000-foot level; US$40 to $50 billion of agricultural purchases, things like that.”
“But … what will it actually be? What will be the products? How do you deal with pricing? How do you deal with market conditions? How do you deal with the contingency that they don’t perform?” Ross added. “Those are questions you don’t deal with at the 40,000-foot level but you must deal with to make a real deal.
“There’s no big meetings scheduled right now, and there certainly is no signing date scheduled.”
China has said it will impose another round of tariffs on US$75 billion worth of US goods – including soybeans – on December 15, in line with the US schedule, if Washington goes ahead with the next tariff increase.
