“There’s progress [on negotiations], first I want to get the deal… if we get the deal the place will come very easily. It will be some place in the US,” Trump told reporters at the White House.
Trump had initially planned to sign newly negotiated trade agreements with Chinese President Xi Jinping in Chile mid-November at the annual Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit. However, Chile cancelled the summit due to ongoing unrest.
Earlier this month, CNBC reported that US and Chinese trade negotiators, Chinese Vice Premier Liu He, US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and US Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer, had reached a consensus on the terms of settling “phase one” of a trade deal.
The world’s two leading economies have been engaged in a trade war for over a year over what Trump deemed unfair economic conditions and noncompetitive behavior from China. China has denied such claims, saying that the trade row in not beneficial to the either side and the world economy. The standoff morphed into tit-for-tat hiking of tariffs in imported goods between the countries.
