China's President Xi Jinping and U.S.'s Donald Trump will not meet this month to sign an agreement that will end the trade war. The date was moved and April is the earliest time when they would resume the talks.
As per Bloomberg, while the officials previously stated that there has been a lot of progress in the trade talks, the summit that will have Trump and Jinping signing an agreement will not happen this month anymore. The presidents were originally scheduled to hold the summit at Trump's Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida this month but it was moved to a later date.
It was reported that China wants the signing of the trade deal to be a formal state visit instead of a low-key meeting but Washington appears to be set on having the summit in a simple manner. Consequently, the officials of Xi Jinping who were set to attend the trade talks have scrapped their plans to fly to the U.S. as the date was moved.
Moreover, China and the U.S. have previously stated that the trade talks are going well and predicted that the trade war is ending soon. However, there is still the fear that Donald Trump will do another walkout scene as the talks as the deadline looms.
On Wednesday, Trump said that he is in no rush to sign the trade deal with China. In fact, no trade talks between Jinping and Trump's team has been set for more than two weeks already, CNBC reported.
As to the reason why China and the U.S. are postponing the signing of the agreement that will put an end to the trade war, Trump's trade representative Robert Lighthizer said that there are still some major issues to resolve including the intellectual property dealing.
It was added that Chinese officials have also brought up the fact that they find some parts of the deal being one-sided thus some points need more polishing to be more agreeable to both sides. Also, as mentioned earlier, China dreads the possibility of Trump walking away from the summit so they are making sure that the deal is in perfect shape already. The POTUS acknowledged this concern so he offered to delay the talks with Xi Jinping until a final deal is reached.
"We could do it either way. We can have the deal completed and come and sign or we can get the deal almost completed and negotiate some of the final points," Trump said during a press conference at the White House. "I would prefer that. But it doesn't matter that much."
