Reporter: Will there be a trade deal in place before the end of the year?Trump: So, I can tell you this: China would much rather make a trade deal than me?Reporter: Then why haven’t they?Trump: Because I haven’t wanted to do it yet.Reporter: Why haven’t you wanted to do it.Trump: Because I don’t think they’re stepping up to the level that I wantReporter: I spoke earlier today with Mr Cook and he said another round of tariffs would be bad for business, it would be bad for the United States (interrupted by Trump)Trump: You know, here’s what I would say. What do you know? I put in tariffs and everyone said ‘Oh geez, you’re taking in hundreds of billions of dollars’ and everyone said ‘oh that’s going to be bad for the economy’. Well, as you just heard from Tim Cook, we have the strongest economy by far in the world and we’re taking in billions and billions. So we’ll see what happens.
Trump and U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer recognize that rolling back tariffs for a deal that fails to address core intellectual property and technology transfer issues will not be seen as a good deal for the U.S., a person briefed on the matter said.
Adds that North Korea says it will not offer anything for Trump to brag about in the meantime. This just adds to the bit-part rhetoric from last week here.
