By Jeff Mason
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. President Donald Trump is open to making a trade deal with China but Beijing should make the first move, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said on Tuesday.
“The ball is in China’s court: China needs to make a deal with us, we don’t have to make a deal with them,” Leavitt told a press briefing, saying Trump had given her that statement directly in an Oval Office meeting to use.
“China wants what we have … the American consumer, or to put another way, they need our money,” Leavitt said.
China raised its tariffs on imports of U.S. goods to 125% on Friday in a retaliatory move to Trump, who effectively raised U.S. tariffs on Chinese goods to 145%, while putting a pause on planned levies for other countries’ goods.
Responding to the U.S. comment on Wednesday, the Chinese foreign ministry said Washington should stop its practice of “maximum pressure” and give up threats and blackmail if it truly wants dialogue and negotiation.
“This tariff war was initiated by the U.S. side… China does not want a fight, but it is not afraid of one either,” ministry spokesperson Lin Jian told a regular press conference.
Trump has described Chinese President Xi Jinping in admiring terms, but neither man has backed down in an escalating trade war between their two countries.
“The president, again, has made it quite clear that he’s open to a deal with China. But China needs to make a deal with the United States of America,” Leavitt said.
Trump has said he expects something positive to come out of the trade tensions between the world’s two largest economies. But, unlike multiple other nations who have responded to his plans for tariffs by seeking deals with Washington, Beijing has raised its own levies on U.S. goods and not sought talks.
(Reporting by Jeff Mason: additional reporting by Nandita Bose and Katharine Jackson, and Ethan Wang in Beijing; editing by Deepa Babington and Tomasz Janowski)
