Bloomberg reports that the planned summit between Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping to seal the trade deal would be postponed to April. One of the reason is that China prefers a formal state visit rather than a low-profile appearance just to sign the deal.
But more importantly, as US Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer said earlier this week that there are still unresolved major issues”. We’ve repeatedly pointed out that there has been no concrete details on the core issues, including IP theft, forced technology transfer and market distortion by state-owned enterprises.
Trump has also tried to tone down on the agreement yesterday as he said “I’m in no rush. I want the deal to be right. … I am not in a rush whatsoever. It’s got to be the right deal. It’s got to be a good deal for us and if it’s not, we’re not going to make that deal.” And, he is also open to complete the trade agreement before or after the summit.
Former head of National Economic Council Gary Cohn said in a Freakonomics interview that Trump “needs a win” and he is “desperate right now” for a trade deal with China. Cohn added, “the only big open issue right now that he could claim as a big win that he’d hope would have a big impact on the stock market would be a Chinese resolution.”
