Trump faces China trade showdown at G20 summit

President Donald Trump will hold a make-or-break trade meeting with his Chinese counterpart at the G20 summit this week and also navigate a diplomatic minefield with Russia’s president after unrest in Ukraine, the White House said Tuesday. Trump is due to meet Chinese leader Xi Jinping in Buenos Aires for a working dinner at the Group of 20 summit that runs Friday and Saturday.

Economic advisor Larry Kudlow told a White House press conference that “the president said there is a good possibility that we can make a deal and he is open to it.” But Kudlow warned that if China holds out against US dem a n d s , Washington could ramp up the trade war. “If need be, if things don’t work out in this US-China summit meeting, he will invoke another $267 some odd billion dollars in tariffs.”

The issue is the biggest looming over Trump’s visit to Argentina, with the two economic giants locked in exchanges of punitive tariffs and Washington effectively threatening to target all remaining Chinese imports, including Apple products made in China. Despite Kudlow’s repeated insistence that Trump sees cause for optimism, he also underlined the tough conditions that the administration wants to impose on Beijing.

“China should change its practices and come into the community of responsible trading nations,” Kudlow said, stressing that he considers the US economy in far better shape than China’s to weather a prolonged trade war. “We are in a position to deal with it and handle it very well,” he said. China will have to give way on “fairness and reciprocity,” he said, warning that US concerns over intellectual property theft and China’s forced technology transfers “must be solved.”