President Donald Trump on Tuesday admitted it won't be possible to reach a comprehensive trade deal with China before the 2020 U.S. presidential election in November.
Trump's stunning comment made in London is the clearest indication yet the trade war with China he boasted in 2018 would be "easy to win" is no nearer to a resolution despite his non-stop tweets saying a deal was close or just around the corner. It was only last week Trump claimed he's in the "final throes of an important deal" while bragging about his alleged friendship with president Xi Jinping.
Trump admitted Tuesday it might be better to wait until after the 2020 election to strike a trade deal with China.
"In some ways, I like the idea of waiting until after the election for the China deal, but they want to make a deal now and we will see whether or not the deal is going to be right," said Trump.
It's clear from his comment Trump was referring to a comprehensive trade deal and not the stalled "phase one" negotiations. Analysts also said it now seems likely the new U.S. tariffs set to be levied Dec.15 will take effect to put more pressure on China to do a deal by late 2020. Others, however, said Trump's new eagerness not to reach a deal will prevent Democrats from using his failure to close the trade deal against him in the election campaign.
When asked if he had a deadline for the deal, Trump replied: "I have no deadline, no ... In some ways I think it is better to wait until after the election, if you want to know the truth."
Trump later tried to downplay his failure saying a deal depended on only one thing -- his willingness to make one.
"We are doing very well with China right now, and we can do even better with the flick of a pen," said Trump. He again restated his old claim China, in turn, was "having the worst year by far in 57 years."
The Trump administration, however, has unable to make headway against China's firm demand that the removal of existing tariffs on Chinese goods ia a pre-condition for a phase one deal.
"Sources with direct knowledge of the trade talks told the Global Times on Saturday that the U.S. must remove existing tariffs, not planned tariffs, as part of the deal,'' said a story in the Global Times, a newspaper owned by the Communist Party of China.
The story also said another unidentified source close to the talks revealed U.S. officials continue to resist this demand because the tariffs were their only weapon in the trade war and giving up that weapon meant "surrender.''
Last week, U.S. Senate Finance Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley claimed China had invited U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin for in-person talks in Beijing. This claim proved to be false.
