US, China trade war might end soon, Asia expert says
Asia expert Michael Pillsbury on Friday said he’s hopeful that President Trump and China’s President Xi Jinping will reach a trade deal soon, but there’s still some unfinished business.
Trump and Xi have agreed to meet next month at the G-20 summit in Buenos Aires to discuss the escalating U.S.-China trade dispute. Pillsbury said this meeting presents a chance to squash the tit-for-tat tariff fight that the world’s two biggest economies have been engaged in since July.
“Things have to be kind of sorted out so that the Chinese side knows what it might take to get a deal with President Trump, but I don’t think they’re there yet,” he said on Friday to Charles Payne on FOX Business’ “Varney & Co.”
“So there is some chance at Buenos Aires that there would be the makings of a deal that President Xi would offer some of the significant concessions President Trump’s been looking for.”
Trump in September imposed a 10 percent tariff on $200 billion worth of Chinese goods that includes a 25 percent increase by the end of the year.
Pillsbury said he’s “mildly optimistic that the Chinese want to head off the full 25 percent tariffs” and he added that “they certainly don’t want to head off all of their exports being tariffed at 25 percent.”