US-China trade deal can wait, says Donald Trump; Dow Jones dips 450 points

Trump said that the only limiting factor to reaching an agreement with China is whether he wants to make a deal

US President Donald Trump appeared to downplay the chances for a deal to end the US-China trade war before the end of the year.

Speaking in London he is attending the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) summit, Trump said on Tuesday that the only limiting factor to reaching an agreement with China is whether he wants to make a deal.

Asked about his previous goal of reaching an agreement by years’ end, Trump said, “I have no deadline, no.” “In some ways I like the idea of waiting until after the election,” Trump added. He has previously suggested that China wanted to wait until after the election to negotiate a deal.

Meanwhile, the US government on Monday said it may slap punitive duties of up to 100 per cent on $2.4 billion in imports from France of Champagne, handbags, cheese and other products, after concluding that France's new digital services tax would harm US tech companies. The US Trade Representative’s office said its “Section 301” investigation found that the French tax was “inconsistent with prevailing principles of international tax policy, and is unusually burdensome for affected US companies,” including Alphabet’s Google, Facebook, Apple and Amazon.com.

France vows retaliation

France’s government said the EU would retaliate if the US follows through on a threat to hit about $2.4 billion of French products with tariffs over a dispute concerning how large tech companies are taxed.

“It’s not worthy of an ally, and it’s not the behaviour we expect from the US toward one of its main allies, France, and more generally, Europe,” French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire said on Radio Classique on Tuesday.“If there were new US sanctions, the EU would be ready to retaliate.”

WTO rejects EU Airbus claims

 The World Trade Organization on Monday rejected EU claims that it no longer provides subsidies to planemaker Airbus, prompting the US to say it could increase tariffs on a wider range of European goods.