Trump sees 'very good chance' of trade deal with China
US President Donald Trump says his administration has a "very good chance" of making a trade deal with China, and insisted there were no links between the trade talks and his request for Beijing to investigate Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden.
Trump, speaking to reporters on Friday before departing the White House, said negotiations to end the trade war between the US and China were separate from any investigation into Biden, whom the Republican president has accused of foreign corruption.
"One thing has nothing to do with the other," Trump said when asked whether he would be more likely to make a deal with China if it investigated Biden. "I want to do a trade deal with China, but only if it's good for our country."
Democrats in the US House of Representatives launched an impeachment inquiry in September after an unidentified whistleblower alleged Trump pressured Ukraine to dig up dirt on Biden in exchange for military aid.
Despite Trump’s optimistic tone about reaching a deal with China, US trade experts and government officials say the trade war runs far deeper than tariffs and could take years to resolve.
Top-level US-China trade talks are scheduled to resume next Thursday and Friday, when US Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer and US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin meet with Chinese Vice Premier Liu He in Washington.
Trump has imposed tariffs on Chinese exports to the US to change China's trade, intellectual property and industrial policy practices, which he has long said are unfair and have cost millions of American jobs.
Trump has also launched trade wars with other US trading partners, including Canada, Mexico and the EU.
The trade war between the world’s two largest economies, which has dragged on for 15 months, has increased the specter of a US and global recession.
Trump’s hopes that a surging economy enhance his 2020 re-election hopes. The economy is crucial to any president seeking a second term, but few have wrapped themselves in the issue as tightly as Trump.
The president has increasingly expressed anxiety to advisers that a downturn would harm his re-election chances. He has lashed out repeatedly at Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell for not lowering interest rates further and faster.
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