President Donald Trump’s wide-ranging speech to the Economic Club of New York included what is Trump’s consistent theme on U.S.-China trade deal prospects – mixed messages.
Trump declared that the U.S. is “deciding whether or not we want to make a deal. We are close.” He also stated that a “significant phase one trade deal with China could happen. It could happen soon. But we will only accept a deal if it is good for the United States and our workers and our great companies, because we have been hit very hard.”
But then Trump proceeded to remark, “I tell it to everybody: If we do not make a deal, we are going to substantially raise those tariffs. They are going to be raised very substantially.”
Those mixed messages were cited as pressure points in overnight equity market action Tuesday night and early Wednesday morning.
Meanwhile, China’s Foreign Ministry said that the two sides have agreed to remove tariffs in stages once an interim deal is signed, and both sides are working on finalizing the details of the agreement, according to the South China Morning Post. The report said once the deal is finalized, then the two sides would decide how many of the tariffs would be removed.
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