President Trump’s chief economic adviser said the prospect of fresh trade talks with China was a sign of progress but warned that the high stakes meant there would no rush to sign a deal, even if it takes a decade.
National Economic Council Director Larry Kudlow, a veteran of the Reagan administration, compared the scale and scope of the task with the fight to bring down the Soviet Union.
“This is the kind of thing where you are looking at far-reaching consequences,” he said Friday. “I don’t mean another year, I mean 50 years or 100 years. So if it takes us more time to do it, and to make sure we get it right, so be it.”
Kudlow, who spoke to reporters at the White House, cautioned against judging results on a short-term 2020 election timetable.
“I don’t want to make a prediction, but the stakes are so high we have to get it right,” he said. “And if that takes a decade … so be it.”
Markets strengthened this week after it emerged that Liu Hu, China’s chief negotiator, spoke Wednesday by telephone with Robert Lighthizer, the U.S. trade representative, and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin.
Kudlow said he expected officials to begin face-to-face talks within a week or two. The principals, he said, would meet in October.
Such high-level discussions would be the first since July when Trump pushed ahead with fresh tariffs.
The talks, he added, were complicated by issues of national security, democracy, and human rights.
The trade war has been one of a range of issues casting an air of uncertainty over the global economy and prompting warnings of recession.
