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Trump tells China’s Xi open to ‘historic’ trade deal
OSAKA, Japan, June 29, 2019 (BSS/AFP) – Washington is open to a “historic”
trade deal with China, President Donald Trump said Saturday as he met
President Xi Jinping, who called for “cooperation and dialogue”.
“It would be historic if we could do a fair trade deal,” Trump said at the
start of the high-stakes meeting to thrash out a tariff war between the
world’s top two economies.
“We are totally open to it,” added Trump.
Xi opened the meeting by telling his US counterpart that “cooperation and
dialogue” are better than “confrontation”.
The bilateral talks are the most highly anticipated event of the two-day
G20 summit in the Japanese city of Osaka, even though experts see little
chance of a full deal to end the damaging trade war between the two
countries.
The best that most experts expect is a truce, which would avoid the
imposition of further tariffs, and open the way for additional discussions
and an eventual deal.
“We want to do some things that will even it up with respect to trade,”
Trump said.
“We were very close but something happened where it slipped up a little
bit,” he added, in reference to the breakdown of previous negotiations.
He also heaped praise on Xi and China.
“We have had a lot of time together, we’ve become friends,” Trump said,
ignoring questions from reporters about what their talks would cover.
“Chinese culture, it’s an incredible culture,” he said.
BSS/AFP/HR/0920