US - China Relations: Trump Makes Short Comment About Possible Trade Deal

President Trump shed little light on the prospects of a preliminary deal to end the trade war with China in a speech Tuesday before the Economic Club of New York, saying only that a phase 1 deal "could happen soon."

“China is dying to make a deal,” Trump said in a meandering, nearly hourlong speech. “We’re close. A significant phase 1 trade deal could happen, could happen soon [but will only be accepted] if it’s good for the U.S., our workers and our companies.”

Trump said China and other countries had been taking advantage of the U.S. for years by imposing insurmountable trade barriers and 100% tariffs on U.S. goods.

“It’s very unfair the way we’re treated by certain countries,” he said, calling trade deals with them “stupid.”

He said he doesn’t blame China for taking advantage of the U.S. Rather, he said he blames U.S. officials who “sat back and let it happen.” He said trade should be “reciprocal.”

Trump also lauded the nation’s economy and the progress his administration has made in cutting regulations and putting America’s workers and companies first.

“I knew that our destiny was in our own hands, that we could choose to reject a future of America … in decline as unacceptable and build a future of American dominance,” Trump said.

“I knew if we lifted … burdens from our economy and unleashed people … then the economy would come thundering back at record speed,” he said, adding that the economy’s performance has exceeded expectations “by a wide margin.”

Trump said his administration has “ended the war on American workers and stopped the assault on American industry.”

He said the U.S. “achieved this stunning turnaround because we’ve put an economic policy that puts America first,” adding, “Factories will always find a home. We have to decide whether we want them here. … We want companies to move to America, stay in America and hire American workers.”

Trump said the U.S. lost 60,000 factories under the Bush and Obama administrations but since he took office, 10,000 have been opened. (The U.S. has lost 5 million manufacturing jobs since 2000, most to technology, not to foreign factories.)

He criticized the Federal Reserve for raising interest rates and refusing to lower them to zero or below, saying the U.S. is competing with countries “who openly cut interest rates. … Give me some of that money! The Fed doesn’t let us do that.”

Trump talked about energy production and the push toward energy self-sufficiency. He noted the U.S. has become a net energy exporter under his administration. (U.S. crude oil and petroleum product exports increased 89% from 2016 to 2017, and imports fell to their lowest level since 1982, the U.S. Energy Information Agency said.)

Trump bashed Democrats for the impeachment inquiry as well as the programs that have been floated by 2020 candidates for the Democratic presidential nomination. He pledged that as long as he’s president, the United States never will be “a socialist country.”

He pushed for a return to Republican control of Washington so that his economic, energy and other programs can be enacted.