'China facing hardest time, badly wants trade deal,' says Donald Trump

Washington: China is facing their hardest time in decades in maintaining the economy and badly wants to have a trade deal with the US, President Donald Trump has said, ahead of the next round of trade negotiations between the two giant economies.

“China is having a hard time at this moment. And I think they'd like to make a deal very badly. And so we have a lot of things that are really exciting,” Trump told reporters at the White House.

The US and China will hold the next round of trade negotiations on October 10, as the two major trading powers are trying to end their bruising trade war. The American side would be led by US Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer and Secretary of Treasury Steven Mnuchin. The Chinese delegation will be led by Vice Premier Liu He. Trump said there were some tremendous deals under negotiation.

"The two countries have been unsuccessfully talking for about a year now. We have some tremendous deals under negotiation. So despite all of that, we have a great economy and a great market,” he said. He said that China wants to make a deal with the US.

“In my opinion, China wants to make a deal more than I do,” Trump said, adding that he is happy even without a trade deal. “I'm very happy right now. We are taking in billions of dollars of tariffs. Despite what the news was saying, there is no inflation. There is not a very big price increase, if any because they've eaten the tariffs. They've devalued their currency and their pouring a lot of money into their system,” he said.

Trump said a good deal would be great for China as well as the country has witnessed over 3.5 million job loss. "Now they've lost 3.5 million jobs and their chain is breaking up. Their supply chain is breaking up like a broken egg. They want to make a deal. The question is do I want to make a deal. The answer would be if we make the right deal and want to do it. I think it would be a great thing for China also,” Trump said.

“China has gone down many trillions of dollars and we've gone up many trillions of dollars,” he said. He said the value of the US, since he was elected, has increased by trillions of dollars. "You could call it worth or value of our country. We've increased not just stock market but our economy is bigger. It's stronger," he said. "But China wants to make a deal very badly. And if we can make a deal, we're going to make a deal. There's a really good chance. There's a really good chance," Trump said.