(Bloomberg) — President Donald Trump said he is exploring several locations to sign the first phase of a trade agreement with China, including Iowa.
“Looking at a different couple of locations,” Trump told reporters Friday at the White House. “It could even be in Iowa.”
Trump said that the two nations are actively discussing plans and making a lot of progress.
The U.S. and China are searching for a new site for a signing ceremony after the cancellation of this month’s Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in Chile because of unrest there. It’s not clear if Chinese President Xi Jinping would agree to sign the deal in the U.S.
Discussions are underway over holding the signing in Iowa, according to a person familiar with the matter. Xi has long had a soft spot for the state. He first visited in 1985 when he led a delegation from Hebei province to look at farming methods and received the key to the city of Muscatine. He also visited in 2012, a visit that is the basis of his relationship with Terry Branstad, the former governor of Iowa and now U.S. ambassador to China.Iowa would also make sense as Trump is eager to highlight the agricultural purchases that are the cornerstone of his “phase one” deal. Iowa is a major producer of pork and soybeans, two commodities that China is expected to buy large quantities of.
Chinese officials have privately cast doubt about reaching a comprehensive trade agreement with the U.S. The U.S. and China are still far apart on some of the thorniest issues in their trading relationship.
(Updates with Trump comment in second paragraph.)
–With assistance from Jenny Leonard, Shawn Donnan and Steven Yang.
To contact the reporters on this story: Jordan Fabian in Washington at [email protected];Jennifer Jacobs in Washington at [email protected]
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Alex Wayne at [email protected], Justin Blum, Laurie Asséo
For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com
©2019 Bloomberg L.P.