Trump Warns of Tougher Trade Talks With China

WASHINGTON (CN) – As trade talks between the two countries resumed Tuesday, President Donald Trump took to Twitter to say Chinese officials will have a much harder time negotiating a deal to purchase American agricultural products if he is re-elected in 2020.

“They should probably wait out our Election to see if we get one of the Democrat stiffs like Sleepy Joe. Then they could make a GREAT deal, like in past 30 years, and continue to ripoff the USA, even bigger and better than before,” the president tweeted. “The problem with them waiting, however, is that if & when I win, the deal that they get will be much tougher than what we are negotiating now…or no deal at all. We have all the cards, our past leaders never got it!”

The president continued in another tweet, saying China had lost a total of 7 million jobs due to tariffs imposed on Chinese goods, including 2 million in the manufacturing industry.

“Trumps [sic] got China back on its heels, and the United States is doing great,” he wrote.

American negotiators resumed talks with China officials in Shanghai on Tuesday in an effort to resolve trade disagreements, including over Chinese tech giant Huawei. Negotiations have been ongoing since last December.

Last year, Trump met with Chinese President Xi Jinping in Argentina at the G20 Summit and agreed to a deal for China to purchase more American products, among other trade-specific stipulations.

But the deal hiccupped in May after Trump imposed additional tariffs on Chinese goods, extending them to another $200 billion worth of products.

In June, Trump met with President Xi at the G20 Summit in Japan and their talks appeared fruitful, as Trump declared China would be making a large purchase of goods from America. Until Tuesday, no new developments on the negotiations had been announced.

During the 2016 campaign, Trump vowed to brand China a currency manipulator as soon as he took office, but he has not so far. China is the only country to receive the label, the last time being in 1994.

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