President Donald Trump Friday said his latest meeting with Chinese leadership was a "big success", but stopped short of announcing that a trade deal has been reached between the two countries.
Trump on Thursday met with visiting Chinese Vice Premier Liu He in the Oval Office of the White House. The Chinese leader was here for talks with the top American leadership to reach an agreement after the two trading powers entered into a trade war and imposed tariffs on more than USD 360 billion in two-way trade.
"The China meeting was a big success. I think we're going to have a... Look, we have a very good relationship. We're going to say... I don't want to predict the deal or not a deal, but we're very well along, Trump told reporters at the White House.
Trump wants a trade deal with China that reduces the deficit and addresses his concerns about theft of intellectual property and technology.
We really negotiated probably the two hardest points very successfully for our country. And China understands. You know China has taken advantage of our country for 30 years. And we can't do that anymore, not with me, Trump sad.
On Thursday, Trump said that he is looking for a trade deal that is enforceable. "It is enforcement. We have to make sure there's enforcement. I think we'll get that done. We've discussed it at length. I think we're going to get that done".
"We're getting very close to making a deal. That doesn't mean a deal is made, because it's not, but we're certainly getting a lot closer. I would think within the next four weeks or maybe less, maybe more -- whatever it takes -- something very monumental could be announced," the US President said.
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Chinese Vice Premier Liu said that the two countries have made great progress. "I do think that because we got direct guidance by two great President Xi and President Trump," he said.
Trump has been accusing China of indulging in unfair trade practices, like the theft of US technology and massive state intervention in markets, contributing to the huge trade deficit amounting to USD 375 billion.
Trump is demanding China to reduce the USD 375 billion trade deficit and protection of Intellectual Property Rights (IPR), technology transfer and more access to American goods to Chinese markets.
Last week, negotiators from both the countries met in Beijing to resolve the nine month-long trade war.