Donald Trump said "very close" to the conclusion of a trade agreement with China

US President Donald Trump said his team was "very close" to concluding a trade deal with China, and he hopes to know in a month's time he will be able to hold a summit in the US with his Chinese counterpart. Xi Jinping the details of the pact.

"We have very good chances to reach an agreement and it would be beneficial for both countries", Trump said at a meeting at the White House with Chinese Vice Premier Liu He.

Several US media had indicated that Trump was planning to announce a date for his summit with Xi during the meeting, but the president said he would only do so if his negotiating team concluded a pact.

"If we reach an agreement, we will have a summit", Trump explained.

He added that he hoped to know "in the next four weeks" if it was possible to organize this summit, but felt that there was "a good chance" that this would happen and that the nomination be "here," without specifying whether it referred to the White House, your private club in Mar-a-Lago, Florida, or anywhere else in the United States.

If this is specified, Trump predicted that the agreement with China would be "epic" and "monumental", and that it would "make happy" both American farmers and those working in the sector. technology.

The United States and China have been negotiating since December to try to contain the trade war they were involved in last year as a result of Trump's protectionist program, which severely criticized the Asian giant's trade policy.

Trump had warned late last year that, if he failed to reach an agreement with China before March 1, he would cut Chinese tariffs of $ 200 billion on imports. Chinese from 10% to 25% currently.

This delay was eventually extended beyond this deadline and the talks accelerated, with a visit by an American delegation to Beijing last week, followed by Liu's visit to Washington by his team.

Since December, Beijing has adopted goodwill measures, such as lower tariffs on vehicles imported from the United States, the resumption of the purchase of soybeans or the introduction of a bill banning the forced transfer of technology.

But as a condition for not increasing its tariffs in China, which range from textiles to food and fuel, Washington also wants Beijing to make structural changes to its economy in order, among other things, to protect the economy. intellectual property of US companies.

In addition, Trump warned that even if he reaches an agreement with Beijing, he will maintain some tariffs on Chinese products "for a substantial period" until it is certain that the China will comply with the negotiated agreement.