New Delhi: Highlighting close personal ties with Chinese President Xi Jinping, the US President Donald J. Trump Thursday hit out at the trade deficit between the two countries, calling for “fairness” in trade ties during his address at the Swiss alpine town of Davos.
“I think that we’re going to have a very good relationship [US-China]. All we want is fairness. We just want a level playing field. We don’t want to take advantage. We’ve been having massive deficits with China,” said Trump during his roughly 45-minute virtual interaction at the World Economic Forum (WEF).
The newly-inaugurated US President added, “But I like President Xi very much. I’ve always liked him. We always had a very good relationship. It was very strained with COVID coming out of Wuhan. Obviously, that strained it. I’m sure it strained it with a lot of people, but that strained our relationship. But we always had a great relationship, I would say, and we look forward to doing very well with China and getting along with China.”
Trump called upon Xi to help the US in stopping the Russia-Ukraine war, highlighting Beijing’s great deal of “power” over the situation. China is the largest trading partner for Moscow, with trade ties crossing $230 billion in 2024. Beijing’s trade with Moscow has helped keep the Russian economy churning as the war with Ukraine continues to rage on.
Even as Trump highlighted his personal ties with Xi, he took aim at the trade deficits that the US has with Beijing, threatening across the board tariffs, particularly aimed at China, the European Union (EU) and Canada.
However, the trade deficit between US and China has fallen to around $252 billion under US President Joseph R. Biden Jr. in 2023, in comparison to the peak of $378 billion deficit in goods and services during Trump’s first tenure in 2018.
Trump unveiled a number of tariffs against Beijing during his first tenure, as he attempted to curb the trade deficit including tariffs on nearly $250 billion worth of Chinese goods. His successor Biden, followed Trump’s tariffs on Chinese products, following it up with trade curbs on high-value technologies including semiconductors.
Tariffs, tariffs, tariffs
At Davos, Trump’s message to those present there, including CEO’s and global business leaders, is to manufacture in the US, promising low corporate tax rates, while taking aim at allies and foes alike for their unfair trade practices.
“Canada. We have a tremendous deficit with Canada. We’re not going to have that anymore. We can’t do it. It’s, it’s, I don’t know if it’s good for them. As you probably know, I say, ‘You can always become a state, and if you’re a state, we won’t have a deficit. We won’t have to tariff you,’ et cetera, et cetera,” said Trump.
He added: “But Canada has been very tough to deal with over the years, and it’s not fair that we should have a $200 billion or $250 billion deficit. We don’t need them to make our cars, and they make a lot of them. We don’t need their lumber because we have our own forests, et cetera, et cetera. We don’t need their oil and gas. We have our, we have more than anybody.”
The US President added that the EU treats the US “very, very, very badly”, taking aim at the multilateral trading bloc’s lack of interest in American agricultural products.
On the campaign trail he promised 10 percent tariffs across the board, and has even commented that it could come into effect around 1 February.
On Russia-Ukraine war
Trump also called for the end of the Russia-Ukraine war, stating that the battlefields in Eastern Europe are reminiscent of World War II. Apart from calling on China to use its leverage with Moscow, Trump called on Saudi Arabia and the OPEC countries to lower the cost of oil to stop the conflict in Eastern Europe.
“If the [oil] price came down, the Russia-Ukraine war would end immediately. Right now, the price is high enough that that war will continue. You got to bring down the oil price; you’re going to end that war. They should have done it long ago,” said Trump.
The US President added that millions of people have perished in the conflict, which has been underreported by the respective governments in Moscow and Kyiv.
“Just so you understand, this is a war that should have never started. If I were president, it would never have started…And then, when I was out, bad things happened, bad things were said, a lot of stupidity all around, and you end up with what you have,” said Trump.
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Trump has the honesty and courage to call out Xi for the Covid carnage. The CCP was square responsible for the Covid virus creating a mess around the world.
Yet, our very own Modi would not dare to put the blame on Xi and the CCP.