The US negotiator in charge of trade talks with China said he considers March 1 to be a "hard deadline" for reaching an agreement that would avert an intensifying trade war.
"As far as I'm concerned it's a hard deadline," US Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer said on CBS's "Face the Nation."
"When I talk to the president of the United States, he's not talking about going beyond March 1, he's talking about getting a deal if there is a deal to be gotten in the next 90 days."
Lighthizer also said that he did not expect the arrest in Canada of a top Chinese executive, Meng Wanzhou of telecom giant Huawei, to interfere with the trade talks.
Robert Lighthizer says the US and China must reach a trade deal by March 1 to avoid tariffs. Source: AFP
"It shouldn't really have much of an impact," he said. "I can understand from the Chinese perspective how they would see it that way. That is a criminal justice matter. It is totally separate from anything that I work on."
Clarity on deadline
China has strongly protested the arrest and the US demand that Meng be extradited over allegations that Huawei has violated US sanctions against Iran.
The arrest shook investors and rattled the markets amid fears it could reignite US-Chinese trade tensions just as a new truce had been declared.
Since taking office, Trump has waged an often-fierce offensive against Chinese trade practices, which he regularly brands as "unfair."
Meng Wanzhou was arrested in Canada at the request of the United States. Source: ABACA
He has particularly denounced the forced transfer of technology to China by foreign firms seeking to do business there, as well as the country's weak protections of intellectual property rights.
At the end of a dinner in Buenos Aires on the margins of the recent G20 summit there, Trump and Chinese leader Xi Jinping said they had agreed to put on hold the months-long trade war that has resulted in billions of dollars in tariffs being imposed on imported goods.
Washington gave Beijing a deadline of March 1 to achieve concrete results and suspend the imposition of 25 percent customs tariffs - rather than the current 10 percent - on $200 billion in imported Chinese products.
In exchange, the Chinese agreed, somewhat vaguely, to purchase more American products and to work to reduce the enormous trade gap (around $335 billion in China's favor) that so irritates the US president.
It was Lighthizer, a veteran of complex trade negotiations and a hawk on trade issues with China, who was tabbed to lead the American team in the talks.
His remarks Sunday appeared to bring clarity after mixed signals from the administration, including a suggestion from Trump about possibly extending the truce.
"The negotiations with China have already started," Trump said in a Twitter message Tuesday. "Unless extended, they will end 90 days from the date of our wonderful and very warm dinner with President Xi in Argentina."
