The US president said his administration will be “very nice” to work with China’s communist leader Xi Jinping.
President Donald Trump told reporters on April 22 that if Communist China does not agree to the trade deal, the US will set tariff conditions.
“In the end, they have to trade because otherwise they can’t trade in the US,” the president said at the oath ceremony of Paul Atkins, chairman of the new Securities and Exchange Committee. “So we want to get involved with them, but they need to trade, other countries have to trade, and if they don’t, we set up a trade.”
He said that the trade contracts are fair to everyone, and putting an end to the current trade contracts with China and other countries would have made him “torn left and right.”
“We lost almost $2 trillion in trade and the day is gone,” he said. “We’re not going to do that again.”
He said his administration would be “very great” in cooperation with Chinese Communist Party leader Xi Jinping to significantly lower tariffs, although not zero. He also reflected his attitude that China and other countries would want to do business with the United States.
“I think they’ll do very well, they’ll be happy, we’re going to live together very happily, ideally we’ll work together,” Trump told reporters on April 22 in the oval office.
The president’s comments came after his press secretary, Karoline Leavitt, was confirmed by a reporter during a White House press conference where Trump believed he was talking to the communist regime.
Last week, the White House said the ball was in a Chinese court in regards to trade negotiations.
“We don’t need to deal with them,” Levitt told reporters during a press conference, quoting the president.
“It’s much bigger between China and other countries, China wants what we have, what every country wants. American consumers.
The administration continues to impose high tariffs on the communist regime to choose to retaliate, but tariffs in other countries have been suspended after their leaders chose to negotiate more equitable terms of trade.
US tariffs on a wide range of Chinese origin products currently in the country are at a maximum of 245%, while Beijing’s retaliatory tariffs on US products have been raised from 84% to 125%.
Andrew Moran contributed to this report.
