Daily London
US President Donald Trump is confident of striking a trade deal when he holds talks with China’s leader Xi Jinping on the sidelines of the APEC summit in South Korea.
Trump is preparing for his first meeting of his second term with XI tomorrow, and says he’s hopeful he can come away with a deal to pause steeper US tariffs if China curbs critical minerals experts controls.
“I think we have a really good chance of making a very comprehensive deal,” Trump said this week aboard Air Force One as he headed to Asia for a three-nation trip.
He also said the Chinese “want to make a deal and we want to make a deal.”
While the APEC summit is set to be held in Gyeongju, the high-stakes Trump-Xi meeting is expected to take place in the city of Busan.
The meeting follows months of volatile moves in a trade war between China and the US that have rattled the global economy.
Trump was infuriated earlier this month after Beijing imposed new export controls on rare earths used in technology and threatened to hike retaliatory tariffs to sky-high levels.
Trump said last week he might ask Xi about freeing Jimmy Lai, a pro-democracy newspaper founder, saying “it’ll be on my list.”
The US president’s three-nation Asia tour was yesterday focused in Tokyo, where he addressed American troops on the aircraft carrier the USS Washington alongside Japan’s new Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese is also heading to South Korea for the APEC summit from Malaysia – where he, Trump and other national leaders were attending the ASEAN meeting.
Albanese said South-East Asia was becoming increasingly important for Australia’s economy.
“In recent years, we’ve doubled our trade with this region, that means more jobs for Australians, more economic activity in Australia, as well as a more prosperous and secure region.”
Albanese’s visit wrapped up with a minor malfunction when a light fell from the ceiling during talks with Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim.
