President Donald Trump on Tuesday dismissed reports suggesting that he was seeking a summit with Chinese leader Xi Jinping, but said he may visit China at the invitation of Xi.
If it proceeds, the visit would mark Trump’s second trip to China as president, the first having taken place in 2017 during his first presidential term.
Trump made the clarification as Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent was meeting with Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng in Stockholm, Sweden, on July 28 for a third round of negotiations to finalize a trade agreement before the Aug. 12 deadline, after which tariffs will increase if no deal is reached.
“We’ll be working out what is likely an extension then,” he said. “Hopefully, we can see the Chinese pull back on some of this glut of manufacturing that they’re doing and concentrate on building a consumer economy.”
“Our discussions with the Chinese are always cordial and constructive,” Greer said. “This is the third round in the past three months, so just the fact that we’re talking and we want to move forward in a positive way, is its own good sign.”
On May 12, they reached a temporary agreement under which the United States reduced its reciprocal tariff on Chinese imports to 30 percent and China lowered its tariff on U.S. goods to 10 percent. The deal also included a rollback of certain trade restrictions.
“We really sort of made a deal with China, but we’ll see how that goes,” he told reporters during a meeting with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen in Scotland.
