President Donald Trump on Sunday denied that his trade war with China is causing friction at the G 7 summit, but indicated he will hold off from a threatened further escalation for now .
“ I think they respect the trade war . It has to happen ,” Trump told reporters in Biarritz, France , where he was meeting with other leaders of the G 7 group .
Asked if the other leaders had criticized the massive trade struggle , he said “ no , not at all . I haven’ t heard that ” .
In fact, European members of the G 7 , which includes Britain , Canada , Germany , France , Italy, Japan and the United States , have repeatedly expressed concern over the trade war ’s threat to the wider global economy.
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson was the latest , telling Trump at a breakfast meeting Sunday that “ we don ’t like tariffs on the whole ” .
“ We are in favor of trade peace ,” he said.
Talks between Washington and Beijing on ending what Trump says is a massively unfair trade relationship have hit a brick wall.
On Friday , Trump responded to a new hike in Chinese tariffs on US goods by imposing heavy extra levies against a total of $ 550 billion in Chinese imports.
But Trump signalled Sunday what might be a slight softening in his position , admitting that he did have doubts about escalating the trade war .
“ I have second thoughts about everything , ” he said.
He said he would hold off for now on declaring a national emergency to invoke an obscure law that he says gives him the power to order US companies out of China .
“ I have the right to , if I want . I could declare a national emergency , ” he said. “ I have no plan right now .”
Trump first brandished the possibility of the drastic measure on Friday , when he tweeted that American companies “ are hereby ordered to immediately start looking for an alternative to China .”
Despite the more nuanced comments Sunday , Trump doubled down on the rationale for his high- risk strategy with China , saying “ they steal and take out , and — intellectual property theft , anywhere from $300 billion to $ 500 billion a year . ”
“ We have a total loss of almost a trillion dollars a year , ” he said . “ In many ways , that’ s an emergency .”
As he has repeatedly over the last months , Trump insisted that China will eventually cave in to US demands for reforming its economic model and transforming the trade relationship .
“ We ’ re talking . I think they want to make a deal much more than I do, ” he said.
( AFP )
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