[WASHINGTON] US President Donald Trump suggested that his administration could strike trade deals with some countries as soon as this week, offering the prospect of relief for trading partners seeking to avoid higher US import duties.
“It could very well be,” Trump told reporters on Sunday (May 4) when asked whether any trade agreements were coming this week. He did not specify any countries.
“We are negotiating with many countries, but at the end of this, I will set my own deals – because I set the deal, they don’t set the deal,” Trump said aboard Air Force One. “You keep asking the same question: ‘When will you agree?’ It’s up to me, it’s not up to them.”
Trump also signalled that his aides are having conversations with counterparts from China, the biggest target of Trump’s trade policies.
China has been the focus of Trump’s tariff campaign, leading Beijing to retaliate against US levies, which now run as high as 145 per cent on Chinese goods. China has been hinting at a possible thaw in recent days, while Trump told NBC News in comments broadcast on Sunday that he’s willing to lower US tariffs at some point.
In response to a question on Air Force One, Trump said he has no plans to speak with Chinese President Xi Jinping.
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China confirmed last week for the first time that its authorities are in communication with American officials over trade deals. Discussions have already been underway with Trump’s aides and multiple other countries, but top officials continue to signal that they ultimately they may still intend to impose duties on trading partners.
“At a certain point, I will be just setting a certain tariff number,” Trump said on Sunday. “At some point in the next two weeks or three weeks, I’m going to be setting the deal.”
“I’m going to say that such and such a country has had a tremendous trade surplus – surplus their way – with us and they have taken advantage of us in various ways, and we fully understand what they were doing,” he said.
Trump’s sweeping tariff policies have whipsawed global markets in recent weeks, sparking fears of an economic downturn and weighing on the US dollar.
Last week, data from the Bureau of Economic Analysis showed US gross domestic product contracted for the first time in three years. BLOOMBERG
