U.S. President Donald Trump this week said his administration is talking with China to strike a tariff deal and that Chinese President Xi Jinping had called him, Time magazine reported, as Beijing has so far disputed the U.S. characterization of talks,
Reuters reports.
The Republican president, in an interview with the magazine on Tuesday that was published on Friday, did not say when Xi called or what the two leaders discussed. Trump said he would not call Xi.
"He's called. And I don't think that's a sign of weakness on his behalf," Trump said.
China's Foreign Ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Trump's statement. Before Trump's latest remarks were published, it had urged Washington to stop "misleading the public" on bilateral tariff negotiations, a comment reiterated by Beijing's embassy in Washington.
Trump in the interview said he has made 200 tariff deals and expected to finish negotiations in about three or four weeks, likening the United States to a department store where he sets the price. He gave no details of any such deals.
Asked if he would consider it a win if the U.S. still had tariffs as high as 50% in a year, he told Time: "Total victory."
"We're meeting with China. We're doing fine with everybody. But ultimately, I've made all the deals," Trump said.
"The deal is a deal that I choose. View it differently: We are a department store and we set the price. I meet with the companies, and then I set a fair price, what I consider to be a fair price, and they can pay it, or they don't have to pay it," he added.
