CNBC’s Jim Cramer said President Donald Trump has the upper hand in the China trade war because tariffs are hurting the Chinese economy way more than the U.S. economy.
“Hate him or like him, he has them where he wants them,” Cramer told CNBC.
“I always felt that there’s a moral equivalence that our mainstream puts between China and the United States. Hate him or like him, Trump is not morally equivalent” to Chinese President Xi Jinping, Cramer said.
Cramer spoke just before the United States and China agreed on Friday to the first phase of a deal to end a trade war, prompting Trump to suspend a threatened tariff hike, but officials said the agreement had to be put on paper and more work was required to get it finalized.
The partial accord, covering agriculture, currency and some aspects of intellectual property protections, represented the biggest step toward resolution of a 15-month tariff war between the world’s two largest economies that has hit financial markets and slowed global growth.
The announcement did not include many details, however, and Trump said it could take up to five weeks to get the deal written, Reuters explained.
“We will not sign an agreement unless we get and can tell the president that this is on paper,” U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said as the two sides gathered with Trump at the White House.
With Chinese Vice Premier Liu He sitting across a desk from him in the Oval Office, Trump told reporters that the two sides were very close to ending their trade dispute.
“There was a lot of friction between the United States and China, and now it’s a lovefest. That’s a good thing,” he said.
Trump spoke after two days of high-level negotiations in Washington between Mnuchin and Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer and a delegation led by Liu on the Chinese side.
Mnuchin said that Trump had agreed not to proceed with a hike in tariffs to 30% from 25% on about $250 billion in Chinese goods that was supposed to have gone into effect on Tuesday.
But Lighthizer said Trump had not made a decision about tariffs that were subject to go into effect in December.
When asked about those tariffs, Trump said: “I think that we’re going to have a deal that’s a great deal that’s beyond tariffs.”
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