No summit with China’s Xi Jinping until a deal to end trade war is final, Donald Trump says

US President Donald Trump and Chinese Vice-Premier Liu He in the Oval Office at the White House. Photo: AFP

The US president, speaking with Chinese Vice-Premier Liu He at his side, said it might be another month before he could announce a meeting with Xi. ‘If we have a deal, we’ll have a summit,’ Trump said. Wendy Wu, Owen Churchill specially for the South China Morning Post.

US President Donald Trump met with China’s chief trade negotiator, Vice-Premier Liu He, at the White House on Thursday afternoon, but said a summit with his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping would not be announced until a trade deal was in place.

“If we have a deal, we’ll have a summit,” Trump said, adding that it might be another four weeks before he would be able to announce a meeting with Xi.

The two sides resumed trade talks four months ago and have gone through nine rounds of negotiations, including phone conversations and intensive sit-down discussions. People familiar with the situation said both sides were exhausted and under pressure to bring the matter to a conclusion.
Liu arrived in Washington on Monday and began “endgame” negotiations with his US counterparts on Wednesday. In a rare show of emotion, he waved to onlookers before entering the US trade representative’s offices.

The focus of further talks on Thursday will include what needs to be done to lift the existing tariffs, according to Trump.

“Progress is being made at a very rapid pace,” said the US president, who was joined by both US and Chinese trade negotiators at the Oval Office, with Liu at his side. In previous White House meetings this year, the Chinese Vice Premier had sat across from Trump.

“We’ve agreed to far more than we’ve left to agree to,” Trump told reporters.

As was the case in previous face-to-face meetings between the two, Liu delivered a personal letter to the US president from Chinese president Xi Jinping, a message that Trump described as “beautiful.”

In the past year, Trump has imposed duties on about US$250 billion worth of Chinese imports, and Beijing responded with tariffs on US agricultural and industrial products.

A source said that China has made further concessions during this round of talks, including greater opening of its markets.

The discussions are expected to continue until Friday.

Negotiations have gone back and forth about when and where Trump and Xi would meet to sign a deal ending the trade war. A source said China has pushed back on the proposal for a meeting on the sidelines of G20 summit in June in Japan and suggested a sit-down gathering later this month in the US.

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