China signaled on Monday it was now seeking a “calm” end to its ongoing trade conflict with the United States — as Asian markets crumbled and China’s currency dropped to an 11-year low following the latest tariffs on $550 billion in Chinese goods that the Trump administration announced last Friday.
Related: Trump Is Raising Tariffs on China in Bitter Trade War
President Donald Trump said on Monday, as Fox News reported, that officials from China called U.S. officials — and that they expressed interest in “get[ting] back to the table,” The Wall Street Journal reported.
He called the discussions a “very positive development.”
“They want to make a deal. That’s a great thing,” the president said.
News of the possible opening in negotiations came shortly after Trump threatened to declare an emergency that would lead to American businesses freezing their relationships with China.
“China called last night our top trade people and said let’s get back to the table.”
Trump says China wants to restart trade talks during a meeting with Egypt’s President #G7Summit pic.twitter.com/VWHjo4H1nA
— Bloomberg TicToc (@tictoc) August 26, 2019
#BREAKING: #China says it's ready to negotiate after Trump #tariffs tank Asian equity markets, currency https://t.co/u8rM6k8WOB
— Sara A. Carter (@SaraCarterDC) August 26, 2019
Trump’s tariff action on Friday was in response to China’s imposing its own retaliatory tariffs on $75 billion in U.S. goods.
At the Group of Seven summit in France on Sunday, White House officials rejected suggestions that the president was giving in or changing his position.
Related: China Is a Bully and It Must Be Treated Like One
They declared instead that his only regret was not implementing even more tariffs on China.
Trump also wrote on Twitter that world leaders at the G-7 were “laughing” at the media coverage of the gathering, noting that much of it was inaccurate.
For more coverage of these developments, check out this Fox News piece about it.
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