Commercial War: Donald Trump Calls "Very Productive" Meetings of US Delegation to China

The president of United States, Donald TrumpHe met this Saturday with the team of negotiators who went to Beijing this week for a new round of negotiations with China.

"Trade negotiators have just returned from China where trade meetings have been very productive," said the leader on his Twitter account, who decided to settle in his private residence this weekend. Palm Beach (Florida), Mar-a-Lago.

He added that the officials met him "giving the details".

"At the same time, China is pouring billions of dollars into the United States in the form of commercial tariffs," he added.

The US delegation, led by the Secretary of the Treasury, Steven Mnuchinand the representative of Trade, Robert Lighthizer, went to Beijing for a series of talks, after which they were received by the Chinese president, Xi Jinping.

The two teams will meet again next week at Washington.

On Friday, Trump badured that the talks with China were going "extremely well", although he noticed that the key is the conclusion of a trade agreement.

"They are doing extremely well (…) We are much closer than we have ever been in this country to reach a real trade agreement"with China," said Trump during an appearance at the White House.

Trump has set the beginning of March the expiry of an agreement with China and warned that if it does not materialize, it would increase the tariffs imposed on Chinese products valued at 200 billions of dollars, from 10% to 25%.

The president stressed that it would be an "honor" to withdraw these tariffs if a pact with Beijing is finally reached.

This meeting was the third in person between representatives of the two countries since Xi and Trump agreed on 1 December a 90-day truce, which means that the deadline for concluding a final trade pact expires on 1 March .

In December, the president had agreed to temporarily suspend the increase in US tariffs on these Chinese products, but had warned that he would follow through on his plan if the deal was not forthcoming. concluded within the prescribed time.

However, on Tuesday, he opened the door to postpone this measure if progress is substantial.

China has adopted a number of goodwill measures to conclude an agreement, such as the reduction of tariffs on vehicles imported from USA, the resumption of the purchase of soybeans from this country or the presentation of a bill prohibiting the forced transfer of technology.