Trump says China's vice premier coming to US to 'make a deal'
Former Trump State Department senior adviser Christian Whiton gives his take on the U.S.-China trade negotiations.
Talks between the U.S. and China are expected to begin Thursday and extend into Friday at least, the date the U.S. is expected to impose a new round of tariffs against China.
President Trump said on Wednesday that China “just informed” the White House that a team -- including Vice Premier Liu He -- is coming to the U.S. to strike a trade deal.
“We’ll see, but I am very happy with over $100 Billion a year in Tariffs filling U.S. coffers...great for U.S., not good for China!” the president wrote in a tweet.
Although the Chinese were set to bring a 100-person delegation to the U.S. this week, the trade talks were thrown into limbo after Trump threatened on Sunday to slap an additional 25 percent tariff on $325 billion worth of Chinese goods.
The U.S. already imposes a 10 percent tariff -- which is set to rise to 25 percent on Friday, Trump said in a tweet -- on $200 billion of goods and a 25 percent tariff on $50 billion of tech products.
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Trump, however, said on Wednesday that real reason for the pullback was hope among the Chinese that they could hold off on negotiations on the chance that a Democrat wins the 2020 presidential election.
White House officials have stressed that both sides are eager to wrap up talks; last week, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin told FOX Business that although they still had “more work to do,” enforcement mechanisms were “close to done.”
“If we get to a completed agreement it will have real enforcement provisions,” he said at the time.