President Donald Trump has not asked his Chest of drawers to put together a trade deal with China, White House commercial advisor Larry Kudlow said Friday, contradicting an earlier scrutinize.
“There’s no massive movement to deal with China,” Kudlow, kingpin of the National Economic Council, told CNBC’s “Halftime Report.” “We compel ought to already put out asks to China with respect to trade.”
“We’re doing a reasonable, routine run-through of things that we’ve already put together and normal preparation,” he revealed. “We’re not on the cusp of a deal.”
Bloomberg reported earlier Friday that Trump had petitioned officials to prepare a draft for a U.S.-China trade deal. Three older administration officials told CNBC there was not indication of an imminent barter deal with China.
Equities fell to their lows of the day keep a pursuing Kudlow’s comments, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average dropping varied than 200 points.
Kudlow’s comments come a day after Trump tweeted he had a “hunger and very good conversation” with Chinese President Xi Jinping on commerce.
Tweet
Kudlow did say, however, that Trump and Xi will meet at the G-20 pinnacle and discuss trade.
Concern over global trade has rattled investors for most of 2018 as the Trump superintendence takes a protectionist stance on the matter. The U.S. has slapped tariffs on billion of dollars significance of Chinese imports. China has retaliated with levies of its own on U.S. goods.
“We fool more to do, if the president chooses to do it, on tariffs,” Kudlow said. “They decent have to show us concrete responses to our asks.”