President Trump on Monday praised his relationship with China’s Xi Jinping and said they’ll remain friends through their trade dispute even as Beijing said it would be impossible to negotiate billions of dollars in threatened tariffs with the United States under “current circumstances.”
“We have a situation with China where we have a very good relationship with China, and I think we’ll maintain that relationship,” Trump said at during a Cabinet meeting at the White House. “I’m very good friends with President Xi. I have great respect for President Xi.”
Despite his friendship with Xi, who visited with Trump at his Florida resort Mar-a-Lago last year, Trump repeated his stand that China has been involved in unfair trade practices to the detriment of the US.
“China has been taking advantage of the United States for many years, really, if you look at it since the start of the World Trade Organization. And they have really done a number on this country,” he said.
In a tweet, Trump laid out his idea of how China skews trade with American businesses.
“When a car is sent to the United States from China, there is a Tariff to be paid of 2 1/2%. When a car is sent to China from the United States, there is a Tariff to be paid of 25% ,” Trump said on Twitter. “Does that sound like free or fair trade. No, it sounds like STUPID TRADE – going on for years!”
But a spokesman for China’s foreign ministry said the trade frictions were “entirely the provocation of the United States.”
“Up to now, Chinese and US officials have not held any negotiations on the trade dispute,” spokesman Geng Shuang said during a news briefing, Reuters reported.
“Under the current circumstances, it is impossible for the two sides to have any negotiations on this issue.”
He downplayed any effect the higher tariffs would have on the Chinese economy and said the threats are a product of the Trump administration’s “anxiety disorder.”
“The United States with one hand wields the threat of sanctions, and at the same time says they are willing to talk. I’m not sure who the United States is putting on this act for,” Geng said.
In the White House meeting, Trump blamed past administrations for not taking care of the trade imbalance with Beijing.
“And I don’t blame China. I blame the people running our country. I blame presidents, I blame representatives, I blame negotiators,” he said. “We should have been able to do what they did. We didn’t do it; they did. And it’s the most lopsided set of trade rules, regulations that anybody has ever seen.”
The world’s two biggest economies have been battling over imposing billions of dollars worth of penalties on goods in the past week.
