Trump says a trade agreement with China will be on US terms

The is no purpose to a trade deal with Beijing if it is not on Washington’s terms, US president Donald Trump said, shortly after China threatened a retaliation to new US tariffs on its imports.

“China, frankly, would love to make a deal, and it's got to be a deal on proper terms. It’s got to be a deal, frankly, on our terms. Otherwise, what's the purpose?” Trump said, speaking to New Hampshire’s WGIR radio ahead of his campaign rally in Manchester on Thursday.

Earlier in the day, China’s State Council Tariff Committee vowed to “implement necessary counter-measures” if the US proceeds with new tariffs. Trump threatened to hit its trade war rival with 10 percent levies on $300 billion-worth of imports starting September 1, but then a US trade body announced that the measure will be postponed for certain goods, including cellphones and laptops.

The world’s two biggest economies have put their trade spat on pause several times, but each time it has ended with new tit-for-tat tariffs, as they fail to come to any substantial agreement.

Before the latest escalation of tensions, Trump accused the Chinse side of backtracking of its promises in May, and further increased the tariff rate on Chinese goods to 25 percent. Beijing responded with its own tariff hikes on American imports, increasing levies to 25 percent on 5,000 US products, worth an estimated $60 billion.

On Friday, the US president said that, while the talks are ongoing, he is not ready to make a deal. He added that Washington is not going to do business with Chinese tech giant Huawei, but said that this could change if a trade agreement were reached.

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