President Trump is meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping at the G-20 summit in Argentina Saturday afternoon, amid an escalating trade war between the U.S. and China.
The U.S. has imposed import taxes on $250 billion worth of Chinese products, citing predatory trade practices by the Chinese, and China has countered by targeting $110 billion in U.S. imports.
Mr. Trump said he plans to move forward with increasing tariff levels on Chinese products to 25 percent in January, saying in a Wall Street Journal interview Wednesday that it is “highly unlikely” that he would comply with China’s request to hold off on the increase. Also on Wednesday, U.S. Trade Rep. Robert Lighthizer criticized China for imposing 40 percent tariffs on U.S. auto imports, compared to the 15 percent it imposes on auto imports from other country, calling tariffs “egregious.”
“He’s a friend of mine. He’s a good friend but we have a little bit of a dispute,” Mr. Trump said about Xi in an interview with Voice of America on Friday.
The meeting with Xi comes after a victory for Mr. Trump on trade. On Friday, Mr. Trump, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto signed their intention to move ahead with their new trade pact.
Much of the president’s reasoning for changing the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) was his claim that the agreement was so widely despised, and needed to be renamed. Mr. Trump calls it the “United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement,” or “USMCA.” But Trudeau declined to call it the “USMCA” Friday, calling it instead the new North American Free Trade Agreement. Trudeau asked Mr. Trump to lower the newly imposed steel and aluminum tariffs.
“Donald, it is all the more reason we need to keep working to remove the steel and aluminum tariffs between our countries,” Trudeau said.
The trade agreement still has to be approved by each nation’s legislatures, although the president expressed optimism about his chances in Congress. Democrats take control of the House in January.
Mr. Trump met with German Chancellor Angela Merkel earlier on Saturday. He was initially scheduled to hold a bilateral meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin, but canceled it on Thursday, citing Russian aggression against Ukraine.
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