Washington (AFP)
"I did not agree to anything": Donald Trump showered on Friday the optimism of the Chinese authorities who demand a reduction of punitive tariffs to sign an agreement ending the trade war between the two world's leading economies.
Gao Feng, spokesman for the Chinese Ministry of Commerce, said on Thursday that Beijing has agreed with Washington for a "phased" lifting of their mutual tariffs, "as progress towards a "final" agreement.
Until then, Donald Trump had remained silent, fueling questions about what's going on behind the scenes.
"China wants a cancellation (tariffs), not a complete cancellation because they know I will not do it," he said Friday, hammering that Beijing wanted "more" an agreement that he -even.
For months, China has demanded the abolition of customs surcharges as a condition for the signing of a treaty, because the tariff war affects more and more hard the economy of the Asian giant.
The Trump administration has so far always refused to lift all of these barriers, believing that they constitute a "lever" for the implementation of a possible treaty.
Peter Navarro, the hard-working trade policy adviser to Donald Trump, reminded himself of the hard line.
"There is no agreement to remove tariffs as a condition of (final) agreement," he said on NPR radio. "The only person who can make this decision is Donald Trump," he added, referring to "propaganda" on the part of the Chinese, relayed by the press.
"What is on the table is the upcoming tariffs on December 15," he said.
According to the adviser, the Americans would be "willing (...) to postpone these tariffs, but not to go back on the existing tariffs". "It's a subtle difference," he said.
- "Soon an agreement" -
US Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer and US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, at the forefront of these negotiations, are not out of the woods yet.
In the spring they had mentioned the possibility of a lifting of customs duties, but very partial.
"If you do not hear from Ambassador Robert Lighthizer (...), that's not true," Peter Navarro said Friday in response to voices from China.
But a sign of confusion and division in the entourage of Donald Trump, another economic adviser, Larry Kudlow, told Bloomberg financial news agency: "If there is a trade agreement phase 1, there will be agreements on tariffs and concessions ".
The partial elimination of surcharges would be a relaxation of the pressure tactics so far against Beijing.
"I can not say more about the talks with China, but we are very, very optimistic that we will soon get an agreement," said on his side contented to say the White House spokeswoman Stephanie Grisham .
Donald Trump and his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping were initially to sign a preliminary agreement in Chile in mid-November on the sidelines of Apec, a Pacific Rim summit.
But this event was canceled due to the social crisis that is shaking this country. And Mr Trump said the two countries were "choosing a new place" for signing.
"It will be in our country," he said Friday, again referring to Iowa, a state, known to Xi Jinping, very dependent on agricultural trade with China and battlefield for the presidential election.
If it's not Iowa, it will be in an "agricultural region" of the United States, said the Republican president.
According to him, the "phase 1" agreement that Mr Trump wants to sign includes 40 to 50 billion dollars in purchases of agricultural products by the Chinese. US farmers - who largely supported Trump in the 2016 presidential election - were the first victims of the Beijing-Washington trade war, but were generously compensated by the administration.
An agreement, even partial, would reassure global markets and mark a pause in this bilateral conflict affecting the global economy.
Launched in March 2018 by the host of the White House, this offensive must put an end to commercial practices deemed "unfair", such as state subsidies or theft of intellectual property while the two countries are fighting over the domination of tomorrow's technologies.
© 2019 AFP