(Bloomberg) -- President Donald Trump said a trade agreement with China may be “too hard to get done” and that the world’s two largest economies may need to change their framework for a deal.
"Our Trade Deal with China is moving along nicely, but in the end we will probably have to use a different structure in that this will be too hard to get done and to verify results after completion," Trump said on Twitter on Wednesday.
Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said on Sunday the administration agreed to put proposed tariffs on hold while it builds on a “framework” for negotiations with China on trade issues, following two days of high level negotiations in Washington. The nations didn’t provide any details of the deal and put no dollar target for cutting the trade gap.
U.S. Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross plans to visit Beijing in early June to work out the details of a broad commitment from China to increase its purchases of American goods -- particularly of energy and farming goods.
Trump threatened tariffs on as much as $150 billion in Chinese imports after U.S. Trade Representative’s office earlier this year concluded that Beijing violates American intellectual-property rights. China vowed to retaliate in kind, sparking fear of a trade war.
