Washington, Jun 18 (EFE).- President Donald Trump said Tuesday that he would have “an extended meeting” with his Chinese counterpart, Xi Jinping, at the G20 summit in Japan later this month to discuss the trade war.
“Had a very good telephone conversation with President Xi of China. We will be having an extended meeting next week at the G-20 in Japan. Our respective teams will begin talks prior to our meeting,” Trump said in a Twitter post.
The president’s tweet came after weeks of uncertainty over whether the two leaders would meet on the sidelines of the summit in Japan.
The G20 summit will take place in Osaka, a city in southern Japan, June 28-29.
The meeting between Trump and Xi will take place amid rising trade tensions between Washington and Beijing, and after Trump threatened to impose tariffs on all goods imported from China if that country does not agree to open its market and address other trade issues.
In May, the US leader imposed a 25 percent tariff on Chinese imports worth $200 billion in response to the lack of progress in reaching a trade deal with Beijing.
China, for its part, retaliated by slapping tariffs on US imports worth $60 billion.
In 2018, the United States posted a trade deficit of $419 billion with China due, largely, to the fact that US exports to Asia’s largest economy totaled just $120 billion, while American imports from China reached $540 billion.