Trump raises idea of decoupling U.S. economy from China

WASHINGTON, Sept 7 (Reuters) – U.S. President Donald Trump on Monday raised the idea of separating the U.S. and Chinese economies, also known as decoupling, suggesting the U.S. would not lose money if the two countries no longer did business.

“So when you mention the word decouple, it’s an interesting word,” Trump said at a White House news conference.

“We lose billions of dollars and if we didn’t do business with them we wouldn’t lose billions of dollars. It’s called decoupling, so you’ll start thinking about it,” Trump said. (Reporting by Jeff Mason and Chris Sanders; Editing by Howard Goller)