WASHINGTON: President Donald Trump said Wednesday that China needs a trade deal with the United States because its economy is so weakened by US tariffs.
"China's economy is going down the tubes -- they want to make a deal," Trump said in an interview with Fox Business News hours before he took off for a G20 summit in Japan, where he will meet with President Xi Jinping.
Trump has hit USD 200 billion of Chinese imports with levies and has threatened to impose them on an additional USD 300 billion if Beijing does not agree to US demands for protection of intellectual property and other reforms to a trading system that Trump says gives China huge unfair advantages.
The two sides said they were close to a deal before talks broke down in May.
Trump noted that some companies are leaving China for Vietnam to avoid the US import tariffs, but he complained that Vietnam was "even worse than China" when it comes to unfair trading practices. Vietnam is the "single worst abuser," he said.