Washington (AFP)

Donald Trump announced Monday that he favored a global trade agreement with Beijing rather than a partial treaty, a few days before the resumption in Washington, of negotiations to try to break the stalemate of the tariff war.

"I lean instead for a big deal," said the US president on the sidelines of the signing of a partial trade treaty with Japan.

A partial agreement with China "is not at all what we prefer," he added, while welcoming the fact that the Chinese "are starting to buy a lot of American agricultural products."

As in previous rounds of bargaining, US Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin will lead discussions with a Chinese delegation led by Deputy Prime Minister Liu He, said Monday. morning the White House in a statement.

In addition, as to respond to some US media claiming that the Chinese authorities have significantly reduced the scope of litigation they are willing to address this week, the White House ensures that all topics will be on the table, including subsidies Chinese state-owned enterprises that Beijing would no longer wish to discuss.

"The topics for discussion will include forced technology transfer, intellectual property rights, services, non-tariff barriers, agriculture and law enforcement," said the president's services.

The principle of a meeting between the two camps had been announced several weeks ago, but so far no date had been formally recorded.

The talks will resume in a climate cooled by the US decision on Monday to blacklist 28 Chinese governmental and commercial organizations, which Washington accuses of involvement in the Chinese authorities' campaign of repression against the Muslim Uyghur minority.

The United States "can not tolerate and will not tolerate the brutal suppression of ethnic minorities across China," Wilbur Ross, US Secretary of Commerce, said in a statement.

These entities are denied the opportunity to import products from the United States.

- Maximum pressure -

Friday, Donald Trump had once again set the tone: he wants "a good deal" or no agreement at all.

And, according to him, the United States is in a position of strength. "China really wants an agreement" because the tariffs imposed by Washington are killing its economy, he repeated.

The Republican president, campaigning for his re-election, said on Sept. 21 that he did not need to reach a trade deal with Beijing before the 2020 election, stressing the health of the US economy.

For now, the outcome of the negotiations remains unclear and the US economy is beginning to suffer from the uncertainties created by the conflict that has lasted more than a year and a half.

According to White House economic adviser Larry Kudlow, the imposition of reciprocal punitive tariffs is not responsible for the economic slowdown in the United States.

Asked moreover about the possibility of establishing a provisional agreement with China rather than a global treaty, the adviser had taken the opposite of the president and replied: "We will see what they put on the table (...) are open to this idea. "

The White House host is still brandishing the threat of new tariffs on imports from China. This maximum pressure strategy has been unsuccessful so far.

The negotiations will be held before the deadline of October 15: at that time, a new increase in customs duties on $ 250 billion worth of Chinese goods could come into force. They would increase from 25% currently to 30%.

Donald Trump had agreed to postpone the 15-day increase to Beijing's request.

The president, who said in early 2018 that the trade wars were "good and easy to win", launched the offensive to put an end to commercial practices deemed "unfair", especially the forced transfer of American technologies, massive subsidies Chinese state-owned enterprises or the theft of intellectual property.

© 2019 AFP