Deal with China only if it is a great one for the US, says Trump

PTI, Oct 5, 2019, 12:03 PM IST

Washington: US President Donald Trump on Friday said that he would like to have a trade deal with China only if it is a great one for his country.

A high-level Chinese delegation is coming to the US next week for talks with officials from his administration, including US Trade Representative, Robert Lighthizer, Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin.

“I’d like to do a trade deal with China, but only if it’s a great trade deal for this country,” Trump told reporters in response to a question at the White House.

Trump asserted that only he can deliver the best trade deal for the US. Former vice president Joe Biden, who is now running for 2020 presidential elections, will never be able to do so, Trump alleged.

“I can tell you just as an observer, what I saw Biden do with his son, he is pillaging these countries and he’s hurting us,” he said.

“How would you like to have, as an example, Joe Biden negotiating the China deal if he took it over from me after the election? He would give them everything. How would you like to have that? Joe Biden would just roll out the red carpet. He’d give them everything,” he said.

“So, this doesn’t pertain to anything but corruption, and that has to do with me. I don’t care about politics. I don’t care about anything. But I do care about corruption,” he said.

Trump said he has a very good chance of making a deal with China.

“We have had good moments with China. We have had bad moments with China. Right now, we are in a very important stage in terms of possibly making a deal. If we make it, it will be the biggest trade deal every made. If we make it,” the president said.

“But I view China as somebody we deal with on the world stage. I would like to get along with China if we can and if we can that’s great. And if we can’t that’s great too. But what we are doing is we are negotiating a very tough deal if the deal is not going to be 100 per cent for us then we are not going to make it,” Trump said.

China, he said, very much wants to make this deal. “The tariffs are killing China. What has happened is they now have 3 million loss of jobs. They are changed. They are broken up. If you look at their supply chain it is a disaster. Companies are going to other countries including us. China right now is a total disaster,” he said.