Trump, Xi hold high-stakes trade war talks at G20 in Japan

U.S. President Donald Trump said on Saturday he was open to a potentially “historic” trade deal with Chinese President Xi Jinping, as they began talks that could ease tensions or plunge the world’s two largest economies into a deeper trade war, reports Reuters. 

The dispute has already cost companies in both countries billions of dollars, disrupted global manufacturing and supply lines, and roiled global markets.

Trump and Xi were meeting on the sidelines of a Group of 20 (G20) summit in Osaka, western Japan, where the trade feud including a dispute over Huawei Technologies Co has raised concerns about its threat to global growth.

“I actually think that we were very close and ... that something happened where it slipped a little bit, and now we’re getting a little bit closer,” Trump told Xi as the cameras rolled at the start of the closely-watched talks.

“But it would be historic if we could do a fair trade deal.

“We’re totally open to it, and I know you’re totally open to it.” He gave no details of what a deal would entail.

The U.S. president has said he would extend existing tariffs to cover almost all imports from China into the United States if there was no progress from the meeting on wide-ranging U.S. demands for economic reforms.

Xi told Trump he was ready to exchange views on fundamental issues and stressed the need for dialogue over confrontation.

“Forty years on, enormous change has taken place in the international situation and China-U.S. relations, but one basic fact remains unchanged. China and the United States both benefit from cooperation and lose in confrontation,” Xi said.

“Cooperation and dialogue are better than friction and confrontation,” he added.

“Today I’m prepared to exchange views with you on the fundamental issues concerning the growth of China-U.S. relations, so as to set the direction for our relationship in the period to come and to advance the China-U.S. relationship based on coordination, cooperation and stability,” Xi said.

China’s Global Times, published by the ruling Communist Party’s official People’s Daily, said earlier on Saturday the world had to “contain capricious U.S. actions”, pointing to examples like Trump withdrawing from the Paris climate accord.

“The world needs to rein in the U.S., although it’s difficult,” the paper said in an editorial.

“The problem is that many countries have misgivings in expressing their opposition to U.S. bullying tactics out of fear for U.S. power, or hope to profit from the U.S. stirring up the global order through opportunism.”