President Trump on Tuesday accused his predecessors of a “dereliction of duty” during prior trade negotiations with China and other countries, but made it clear he is still not pleased with how his own administration’s trade talks with China last week went.
“I think they’re a start, but we need something. Look, China has been — I really call it a dereliction of duties, if you look at it. In the military they say it’s a dereliction of duty. What happened to our country that our representatives allowed other countries — I’m not just talking about China, China is the big one — to take advantage of us on trade the way we’ve been taken advantage of,” the president told reporters during a meeting in the Oval Office with South Korean President Moon Jae-in.
The president said he and Chinese President Xi Jinping have a “great relationship,” but acknowledged his counterpart is a “world class poker player.”
“As I said, we lost $500 billion a year for many years. And then it varied from $100 billion to $500 billion. When you are losing $500 billion a year, you can’t lose in terms of a negotiation. It’s really easy to win,” Trump said. “But I want this to be a great deal for the United States. I want it to be a good deal for China, too, if that is possible. It may not be possible.”
The president said China has made a “fortune” through trade and said he is “not satisfied” with the trade discussions as they have progressed thus far.
“We have a long way to go, but I want it to go fairly quickly. You talk about numbers like you are talking about billions of dollars a week,” Trump said.
Top officials in the Trump administration, including Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross, met last week with the trade delegation from China, led by the country’s top economic adviser Liu He.
The president met briefly with Liu He during the delegation’s visit to Washington.
