White House economic adviser Larry Kudlow said the dinner meeting between Trump and Xi at G20 this week could “turn the page” on a US-China trade war. But so far, he complained that China’s “responses have disappointed because … we can’t find much change in their approach”. He urged that “President Xi has an opportunity to change the tone and the substance of these talks”. And “Trump has indicated he is open – now we need to know if President Xi is open.”
Kudlow also said that in Trump’s view “there is a good possibility that a deal can be made, and that he is open to that.” But he also emphasized “certain conditions have to be met”. Some issues including intellectual property theft, forced technology transfer, ownership of American companies in China, high tariffs and non-tariff barriers on commodities, and commercial hacking, must be solved.
However, if there is no progress, Kudlow said Trump is prepared to raise tariffs on $200 billion of imports to 25 percent from current levels of 10 percent on January 1. In addition, Trump could add tariffs on another $267 billion of imports. Kudlow said regarding Trump’s stance on this that “as we’ve all learned, he means what he says”.
