Trump says 'I think we'll make a deal
with China' on trade
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[November 03, 2018]
By Roberta Rampton and Susan Heavey
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President
Donald Trump said on Friday that he will likely make a deal with China
on trade, adding that a lot of progress had been made to resolve the two
countries' differences but warning that he still may impose more tariffs
on Chinese goods.
"China very much wants to make a deal," Trump told reporters in
Washington just hours after his top economic adviser expressed caution
about talk of a possible U.S.-China trade agreement.
"We've had a very good discussions with China, we're getting much closer
to doing something," Trump said before departing the White House for a
campaign event.
"I spoke with President Xi (Jinping) yesterday. They very much want to
make a deal," Trump said.
"I think we'll make a deal with China, and I think it will be a very
fair deal for everybody, but it will be a good deal for the United
States."
Trump said he will discuss trade with Xi when the two meet for dinner on
the sidelines of the G20 leaders' summit at the end of November in
Buenos Aires, Argentina.
His administration has demanded that Beijing make sweeping changes to
its policies on intellectual property protections, technology transfers,
industrial subsidies and domestic market access, along with steps to
reduce a $375 billion U.S. goods trade deficit with China.

Trump said a deal with China would also be good for Beijing.
"If we can open up China and make it fair, for the first time ever --
this should have done years ago by other presidents but it wasn't -- I
am very much willing to do it. But China very much wants to make a
deal," he said.
Trump's comments came a day after a phone call with Xi that he described
as "very good.".
The president's remarks helped U.S. stocks to trim their losses on a day
that started with market optimism over a Bloomberg report quoting
unnamed sources as saying that Trump had ordered his cabinet to draw up
terms for a China trade deal.
But by midday, shares had turned negative, weighed down by Apple Inc.'s
disappointing earnings forecast and comments from White House economic
adviser Larry Kudlow that he was less optimistic than previously about a
deal betweenWashington and Beijing.
Kudlow, speaking on CNBC, contradicted the Bloomberg report and added:
"There's no mass movement, there's no huge thing. We're not on the cusp
of a deal."
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President Donald Trump delivers his speech as he and China's
President Xi Jinping meet business leaders at the Great Hall of the
People in Beijing, China, November 9, 2017. REUTERS/Damir Sagolj/

One of China's vice commerce ministers Wang Bingnan said on Saturday
the country is willing to resolve trade issues with the United
States through mutually respectful talks and on an equal footing,
similar to past comments from Beijing.
Trump administration officials have said U.S.-China trade talks
cannot resume until Beijing outlines specific actions it would take
to meet U.S. demands for sweeping changes to policies on technology
transfers, industrial subsidies and market access.
Trump said that if a deal is not made with China, he could impose
tariffs on another $267 billion in Chinese imports into the United
States, adding that China's economy had "been hit very hard" by
previous U.S. tariffs.
The United States has imposed tariffs on $250 billion worth of
Chinese goods so far, while China has retaliated with $110billion
worth of tariffs on U.S. goods.
The Trump administration also has taken action to hit the Chinese
semiconductor industry, indicting two companies accused of stealing
trade secrets and banning U.S. software and equipment exports to one
of them.
(Reporting by Roberta Rampton, Susan Heavey and David Lawder
inWashington, writing by David Lawder; Editing by Steve Orlofsky and
Chizu Nomiyama)
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