U.S. President Donald Trump speaks during a signing ceremony for the “Permanent Authorization of the September 11th Victim Compensation Fund Act” in the Rose Garden of the White House in Washington, U.S., July 29, 2019. REUTERS/Carlos Barria
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. President Donald Trump on Tuesday warned China against waiting out his first term in office to finalize any trade deal, saying if he wins re-election in the November 2020 U.S. presidential contest, the outcome could be no agreement or a worse one.
“The problem with them waiting … is that if & when I win, the deal that they get will be much tougher than what we are negotiating now…or no deal at all,” Trump said in a post on Twitter, as the latest U.S-China trade talks began in Shanghai.
Trump said China appeared to be backing off on a pledge to buy U.S. agricultural products, which U.S. officials have said could be a goodwill gesture and part of any final pact here.
“China … was supposed to start buying our agricultural product now – no signs that they are doing so. That is the problem with China, they just don’t come through,” Trump wrote in a series of tweets.
U.S. and Chinese officials restarted negotiations after talks stalled in May in a bid to end a yearlong trade war marked by tit-for-tat tariffs, but must still resolve deep differences, keeping expectations for this week’s two-day meeting low.
Reporting by Susan Heavey and Makini Brice; Editing by Bernadette Baum