President Donald Trump today said the US cannot afford to have a USD 500 billion a year trade deficit with China, asserting that America need to do "something very substantial" about the trade deficit.
President Donald Trump today said the US cannot afford to have a USD 500 billion a year trade deficit with China, asserting that America need to do "something very substantial" about the trade deficit.
"We have a problem with China. They've created a trade deficit, and I really blame our representatives and, frankly, our preceding presidents for this. They have a trade deficit of USD 500 billion a year. It's not something we can live with,” Trump told reporters during a media interaction with visiting Baltic leaders.
Trump, however, praised Chinese President Xi Jinping calling him a "tremendous person" for whom he has a great respect.
"Two of the most incredible days of my life were spent in China. Many of you were with me. He's a tremendous person," Trump said, recollecting his visit to the country last year.
Trump said his administration will be working with China. "We'll be negotiating with China. Our relationship is very good with China, and we intend to keep it that way. But we have to do something to seriously relieve that trade deficit. We can't have a USD 500 billion a year trade deficit,” he said.
The US has to do something on trade with certain countries, he said.
"And obviously, China is the leader in terms of deficits. We've never had a situation where a country -- nor has there ever been in -- in history, a situation where a country has done that to another country,” he said.
Trump said the US has helped rebuild China. "Over the last 25 years, if you take a look at what's happened. We have helped rebuild China. So we intend to get along with China, but we have to do something very substantial about the trade deficit. And with that, nothing is easy. I campaigned on that. I talked about that. China won't be the only country, but I did, in fact, campaign on it,” Trump said.
Amid escalating trade dispute between the world's two biggest economies, China yesterday imposed tariffs on 128 American goods, retaliating for Trump's decision last month to slap import duties of 25 per cent on steel and 10 per cent on aluminium.
Trump's decision to impose heavy tariff on steel and aluminium was primarily targeting China which has long been accused of flooding the global market with the metals.
Trump has accused China of unfair trade practices which he says harm US businesses and swell the bilateral trade deficit.