Just a few days after Trump lashed out angrily at China, calling its leader “an enemy,” Trump was making nice again at the end of the G7 summit on Monday, praising Chinese President Xi Jinping as a “great man” and saying prospects for a trade deal looked brighter. Soybean prices rose on the news.
“Sorry!” Trump told reporters, according to the New York Times. “It’s the way I negotiate. It’s the way I negotiate. It’s done very well for me over the years, and it’s doing even better for the country.”
China’s lead trade negotiator said Beijing was willing to resolve the dispute through “calm negotiations” and opposed the escalation of the conflict. After the statement, Trump said the prospects for a deal with China are better now than at any time since negotiations began last year. China, Trump said, last night called “our trade people and said let’s get back to the table,” according to Bloomberg.
But Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Geng Shuang appeared to dispute Trump’s claim that such phone conversations had taken place. Hu Xijin, editor-in-chief of the state-run tabloid Global Times, also wrote on Twitter that the two sides had maintained contact at a “technical level”, which “doesn’t have [the] significance that President Trump suggested,” said the South China Morning Post.
“I am not aware of the phone calls over the weekend you mentioned,” he said in response to a question at a Monday press briefing. “What I can say is that the trade differences should be solved through dialogue and consultation.“
“You can say we’re having very meaningful talks, much more meaningful than I would say at any time frankly,” Trump said while meeting with German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Monday. The statement was 180-degrees from the tone set a couple of days earlier by Trump, who lashed out after China promised to slap retaliatory tariffs on U.S. goods in response to the White House decision to add more tariffs on goods from China. He said he was ordering companies to exit China, though analysts questioned whether he could actually do that.
In farm country at least, leaders made clear they were fed up. Over the weekend, Roger Johnson, president of the National Farmers Union, said: “Between burning bridges with all of our biggest trading partners and undermining our domestic biofuels industry, President Trump is making things worse, not better.” The stock market fell sharply Friday, then rebounded on Monday. Soybean futures also moved higher Monday, but analysts said it was short sellers rushing to cover positions.