‘They want a piece of our market. We don’t want a piece of theirs. We don’t care about their market,’ he said.

On Tuesday, U.S. President Donald Trump admitted that his administration has not yet held a meeting with China regarding tariffs, despite having claimed otherwise in recent weeks.

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“They want to negotiate, they want to have a meeting, and we will meet with them at the right time. I haven’t met with them,” he said at the White House at the start of a meeting with Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney.

In recent weeks, the U.S. government had stated that it had already made contact on the issue, and Trump himself had claimed that he had spoken with Chinese President Xi Jinping—something Beijing has denied and Washington has not clarified since.

“Their economy is hurting a lot because they don’t trade with the U.S., and most of their money comes from the U.S. Make no mistake about it. They don’t profit from other countries the way they do from this one,” Trump said, referring to China.

The U.S. President vowed that his administration is approaching the tariff negotiation with a “friendly” attitude, but he is not the one who must reach an agreement with trade partners—rather, it is other countries around the world that should look at the U.S. as a store whose goods they are interested in.

“Picture us as a high-end luxury store, a store that has the products you’re going to buy and pay for. We’ll offer you a very good price. We’ll make very good deals and, in some cases, we’ll make adjustments—but that’s how it is,” the Republican leader said.

“We could sign 25 deals right now if we wanted to, but they are the ones who have to make deals with us. They want a piece of our market. We don’t want a piece of theirs. We don’t care about their market,” Trump added.

The U.S. President emphasized that, “at some point,” his administration will sign agreements, but he stressed that although he wants to help other nations, he will not accept any harm to U.S. trade.

“In some cases, we’ll say we want them to open their country. In others, we’ll say they need to lower their tariffs. For example, India has one of the highest tariffs in the world. We’re not going to tolerate it, and they’ve already agreed to lower it. They’ll reduce it to zero. They’ve already agreed. They would never have done that for anyone other than me,” Trump stated.

teleSUR/ JF

Source: EFE

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