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Trump faces China trade showdown, Russia, Saudi tensions at G20
WASHINGTON, Nov 28, 2018 (BSS/AFP) – President Donald Trump will hold a
make-or-break trade meeting with his Chinese counterpart at the G20 this week
and also navigate diplomatic minefields with Russia’s president and other
world leaders, the White House said Tuesday.
Trump is due to meet Chinese leader Xi Jinping in Buenos Aires for a
working dinner at the Group of 20 summit that runs Friday and Saturday.
Economic advisor Larry Kudlow told a White House press conference that
“the president said there is a good possibility that we can make a deal and
he is open to it.”
But Kudlow warned that if China holds out against US demands, Washington
could ramp up the trade war.
“If need be, if things don’t work out in this US-China summit meeting, he
will invoke another $267 some odd billion dollars in tariffs.”
The issue is the biggest looming over Trump’s visit to Argentina, with the
two economic giants locked in exchanges of punitive tariffs and Washington
effectively threatening to impose sanctions on all remaining Chinese imports,
including Apple products made in China.
Despite Kudlow’s repeated insistence that Trump sees cause for optimism,
he also underlined the tough conditions that the administration wants to
impose on Beijing.
“China should change its practices and come into the community of
responsible trading nations,” Kudlow said, stressing that he considers the US
economy in far better shape than China’s to weather a prolonged trade war.
“We are in a position to deal with it and handle it very well,” he said.
China will have to give way on “fairness and reciprocity,” he said,
warning that US concerns over intellectual property theft and China’s forced
technology transfers “must be solved.”
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– Perilous waters –
Trump is also inked in to meet separately with Russia’s Vladimir Putin and
the leaders of Argentina, Germany, India, Japan, South Korea and Turkey,
White House officials said.
His talks with Putin present an especially tricky task.
US-Russia relations are under huge strain, while Trump is under
investigation at home for alleged collusion with Moscow during his 2016
presidential election win.
Complicating the already complex diplomatic landscape, Russia shot at
Ukrainian ships and captured three vessels on Sunday, prompting the
government in Ukraine to accuse Moscow of preparing “full-scale war.”
The Trump administration has blasted Moscow’s latest actions in Ukraine, a
former Soviet republic, but the president himself has given a far lower key
response.
Trump’s last summit with Putin, in Helsinki in July 2018, also prompted an
outpouring of criticism that the US president had failed to hold his Russian
counterpart to account over what US intelligence services have concluded was
deliberate Kremlin meddling in the 2016 elections.
Trump’s national security adviser John Bolton told journalists at the
White House that there’d be a “full agenda and a continuation of their
discussion in Helsinki” in Buenos Aires.
But there are no plans, the White House says, for Trump to meet with Saudi
Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the de facto leader of the oil-rich Islamic
kingdom.
The CIA reportedly has told Trump that Prince Mohammed, who has close ties
to the administration, was behind the brutal murder of dissident journalist
and US resident Jamal Khashoggi. But Trump has dismissed this, prompting an
outcry from opponents and even some allies in Congress.
Trump spokeswoman Sarah Sanders indicated that an informal meeting may yet
happen.
“I wouldn’t say we’ve ruled out any interaction,” she said, although she
stressed that “the president’s schedule is pretty packed.”
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