US President Donald Trump today called for reducing trade deficit with China as he geared up to meet his Chinese counterpart at his Mar-a-Lago residence in Florida later this week.
"I'm meeting with the President of China on Thursday and Friday in Palm Beach, Florida. And I think we're going to have a very interesting talk," Trump said during a town hall meeting with CEOs on the American Business Climate at the White House.
"We're having a lot of respect for him. I've spoken to him numerous times. But we have to do better, because our deficit with China, as you know USD 504 billion (sic). That's a year. That's enough for a lifetime," Trump said.
A recent Commerce Department report pegged the US trade deficit with China around USD 350 billion.
Trump said his meeting with his Chinese counterpart would be great.
"We are going to have a great meeting. I'm sure we're going to have a fantastic meeting. And we're going to talk about a lot of things, including, of course, North Korea (which is) a problem. And that's really a humanity problem. So we're going to be talking about that also," Trump said giving a preview of his most anticipated meeting.
In his interaction with the CEOs, Trump said his policies reforms have resulted in reduction in trade deficit.
"We're getting unbelievable credit for what we've done, other than the mainstream media which gives us no credit whatsoever. But we are getting tremendous credit. If you look at the real estate industry, the mining industry, the farming industry -- if you look at any of the major industries, you see what's going on," he asserted.
"In fact, even today I was very happy as I read this morning early that our trade deficit with others has gone down very considerably in the last short period of time. It's having a big impact," Trump said.
Disclaimer: No Business Standard Journalist was involved in creation of this content
