US needs a trade war deal more than China does heading into 2020, says MUFG economist
- US President Donald Trump faces growing pressure of a possible economic slowdown while seeking re-election
- Trump ‘doesn't want a S&P 500 correction of 10 per cent in the middle of a re-election campaign’, says Derek Halpenny of Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group
The United States is likely to be in greater need to strike a trade truce with China than the other way around as the 2020 election and a possible economic slowdown weigh heavily on US President Donald Trump, an economist at Mitsubishi UFJ Financial group said on Friday.
“Clearly, [Trump] doesn't want a S&P 500 correction of 10 per cent in the middle of a re-election campaign next year,” Derek Halpenny, research lead of Europe Global Markets at Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group (MUFG), said in an interview with the South China Morning Post.
And that pressure is only going to “increase as we get closer to the re-election”, he said.
The Trump administration has in recent days made goodwill gestures to China ahead of a fresh round of talks after a trade deal between the two countries stalled in May.
Trump tweeted on Wednesday that he would delay the next planned tariff increase to 30 per cent, from 25 per cent, on US$250 billion of Chinese goods by two weeks, until October 15.