US-China trade talks: Donald Trump says trade deal may need to wait until after US election
- ‘The biggest problem to a trade deal is China would just love [it] if I got defeated so they could deal with somebody like Elizabeth Warren or Sleepy Joe Biden’
- But ‘when I win, the deal that they get will be much tougher than what we are negotiating now’, he says in series of tweets
President Donald Trump said on Tuesday that a trade deal with China might not be forged until after next year’s US general election, throwing cold water on expectations for a breakthrough as lead negotiators resumed talks in Shanghai this week.
“The biggest problem to a trade deal is China would love to wait,” Trump told reporters at the White House. “They would just love if I got defeated so they could deal with somebody like [Senator] Elizabeth Warren or [former vice-president] Sleepy Joe Biden or any of these people.”
“And I will tell you this: China is dying to make a deal with me. But whether or not I'll do it – it's up to me; it's not up to them,” he added.
Trump’s latest comments ran counter to the hopeful sentiments he expressed after meeting his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping a month ago at the G20 in Osaka, when he said the outcome was “better than expected” and that “we’re right back on track”.
“They had the worst year in 27 years,” Trump said in a series of tweets earlier on Tuesday. “They’ve had a terrible year because of the tariffs. A lot of companies are moving out of China. You’ve never seen this before. The United States is doing phenomenally well and we’re taking in tens of billions of dollars for – from China.”