President Trump said Tuesday the U.S. has the upper hand in the tariff war with China, saying America’s economy is thriving while the Chinese are having their worst year in more than half a century.
“They are dying to make a deal,” Mr. Trump said at the Economic Club of New York. “We’re the ones that are deciding whether or not we want to make a deal. We’re close.”
He said a highly anticipated “phase one” agreement with China “could happen soon.”
“But we will only accept the deal if it’s good for the United States and our workers and our great companies, because we’ve been hit very hard,” the president said.
Citing the record stock market and the strong U.S. economy, the president said those conditions have given him “the latitude and timing” to renegotiate some of the “horrible” trade deals that previous administrations approved.
Mr. Trump noted that U.S. negotiators “had a deal” with Beijing earlier this year but China reneged.
“If we don’t make a deal, we’re going to substantially raise those tariffs,” he said. “That’s going to be true for other countries that mistreat us.”
During a question-and-answer session after his speech, Mr. Trump dismissed concerns that tariffs are hurting the overall economy.
“You haven’t seen inflation and you haven’t seen, in many cases, price increases,” the president said. “The real cost would be doing nothing. We can’t do that.”
• Dave Boyer can be reached at dboyer@washingtontimes.com.
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