Asia

Trump Says No Meeting With China's Xi Scheduled 'Yet'

WASHINGTON (Sputnik) - US President Donald Trump told reporters on Thursday that no meeting has yet been scheduled with Chinese President Xi Jinping, according to a White House pool report.
Sputnik

"Not yet," Trump said when asked whether a meeting with Xi has been scheduled amid the ongoing US-China trade talks.

Trump later confirmed the two leaders will not meet before the March 1 deadline of the tariff truce between the United States and China.

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The White House said in a statement that the United States and China made progress during bilateral trade talks in Washington, DC last week, but much work remains to be done.

Previously, Trump said during his second State of the Union address that a new trade deal between the United States and China must include a structural change to end unfair trade practices.

Earlier in the day, Commerce Department data revealed that the US monthly trade deficit decreased by about 11.5 percent overall and more than seven percent with China.

On January 31, US President said the trade talks were going well and added that a final deal would not be made until his meeting with Chinese leader Xi Jinping, slated for the "near future."

According to media reports, the meeting may take place in Vietnam on February 27-28.

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The United States and China have been engaged in a trade war since Trump announced last June that $50 billion worth of Chinese goods would be subject to 25 percent tariffs in a bid to fix the US-Chinese trade deficit. Since then, the two countries have exchanged several rounds of trade tariffs.

At the G20 summit in Argentina in December, Trump and Xi agreed to a 90-day truce to allow room for a new trade agreement. The truce is set to end on March 1.

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