This article originally appeared on Fox News on June 29, 2019.
Following Saturday’s meeting between President Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping at the G20 summit in Japan, it is clear that Trump’s strategic use of tariffs to end China’s rampant illegal trade cheating and intellectual property theft is putting pressure on the Chinese to negotiate a more balanced trade agreement.
It’s about time we had a president willing to stand firm and bargain hard with China to serve our national interest.
Trump’s tough stand and refusal to turn a blind eye to China’s misconduct has the potential to open the door to trade that is genuinely free and fair between the world’s two largest economies. This could lead to a sweeping trade agreement that would be one of the most important economic compacts in world history and benefit both nations for decades to come.
In an important vindication of Trump’s refusal to surrender to Chinese pressure, he and Xi agreed to resume stalled U.S.-China trade negotiations. Xi appears to have finally realized that unlike past American presidents, Trump is a master negotiator who will not surrender to Chinese pressure tactics. As Trump has pointed out before, a bad deal is worse than no deal.
While the talks proceed and as a show of good will, Trump said he would not impose tariffs on an additional $300 billion in Chinese imports, as he had planned to do.
However, the U.S. president wisely said he will maintain tariffs he imposed earlier on $250 billion in Chinese products to keep the pressure on China to reach a fair trade deal with the U.S. China imposed tariffs on $60 billion in U.S. products in response to Trump’s earlier tariffs.
“We discussed a lot of things, and we’re right back on track,” Trump said after he and Xi concluded their talks. “We had a very, very good meeting with China.” Trump said the talks went “even better than expected.”
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