Trump says thinking of signing China trade deal in Iowa

US President Donald Trump has said that he is considering signing the first phase of the long-awaited trade deal with China in Iowa.Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping were expected to ink the agreement at the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in Santiago, Chile in mid-November. But host Chile announced on Wednesday that it was cancelling the event due to ongoing mass demonstrations.
“We’re moving along with the deal with China. China wants to make the deal very much and we have a good relationship and we’ll see what happens. I don’t like to talk about deals until they happen, but we’re making a lot of progress,” Trump told reporters on the South lawns of the White House.
He was responding to a question on the status of the US-China trade deal.“I’m looking at a different couple of locations. Could even be in Iowa…What we are discussing the location–but I like to get deals done first,” he said.
Earlier in the day, Trump’s economic advisor Larry Kudlow said that the negotiations with China on a trade deal are going quite well.According to Kudlow, negotiations on agriculture chapter is about closed now. This will not only increase Chinese purchases of American farm products from USD40 to USD 50 billion, but also open up the Chinese agricultural markets, the lowering of regulations and standards and non-tariff barriers.Farmers have been hit hard by the trade war. Trump has been trying to assure them that they will come out ahead in the end.”The financial services chapters virtually done. It’s going to give 100 per cent ownership to American companies in China, securities firms, insurance, investment, and so forth,” he said. “The currency chapter is virtually done for stability rather than any manipulation. Excellent progress on the intellectual theft problem, the intellectual property theft problem, so-called IP chapter. It’s not completed, but very good progress on that,” he said.