WASHINGTON: Presi­dent Donald Trump said Friday that China was ready to make a deal to defuse trade tensions, so he might not have to hit the country with more import tariffs.

Trump already has imposed steep tariffs on $250 billion of Chinese goods, and has threatened to hit another $267bn, which would be all US imports from the world’s number two economy.

US companies and farmers have been complaining about the lost business and rising prices for key components as a result of the trade friction.

“China wants to make a deal,” Trump told reporters. “They sent a list of things that they are willing to do.”

While the offer is not acceptable yet, he said he was optimistic for an agreement to get “reciprocal” trade.

“I think a deal will be made and we will find out very soon.” Beijing’s list included 142 items and includes “a lot of the things we asked for. Some things were left off. We will probably get them, too,” he said.

The statements seemed to contradict comments Trump’s Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross, who just hours earlier had said a deal with Beijing was “impossible” before the end of the year.

Trump is due to meet with China’s President Xi Jinping late this month in Buenos Aires on the sidelines of the Group of 20 leaders summit.

However, Ross said those talks would serve as a framework to resolving the dispute. “We certainly won’t have a full formal deal by January. Impossi­ble,” he said, according to Bloomberg.

The January date is key since the 10 per cent tariffs in place on $200bn in annual imports from China is due to increase to 25pc.

US stocks jumped following Trump’s remarks but had pared some of those gains toward 1830 GMT.

Published in Dawn, November 17th, 2018