The U.S. once again turning up the heat on China over trade.
Amid a second round of trade talks with China in Washington,... Trump said... he had his doubts on whether they'd be successful... since he believes China has become "spoilt" after years of having it easy with U.S. trade negotiators.
Choi Si-young tells us more.
"But with all the years and all the years that you've covered trade and nations and wars and everything else, you've never seen a people come over from China to work on a trade deal. Now, will that be successful? I tend to doubt it. The reason I doubt it is because China has become very spoiled."
Speaking to reporters at the White House on Thursday, President Trump expressed his doubts about reaching an agreement with China over trade, as the world's two largest economies sat down for crunch negotiations to avert a potential trade war.
Trump's remarks come as the two sides are holding round two of their high-stakes talks on trade.
The first round held in Beijing earlier this month yielded little in the way of progress.
Back on home ground, the U.S. delegation made up of Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross and U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer held talks with their Chinese counterparts led by China's Vice Premier Liu He in a bid to narrow their differences.
The New York Times reports that China is preparing to offer the U.S. a deal to buy 200 billion dollars' worth of American goods.
Under the deal, China would buy a range of American goods, including everything from soybeans to semiconductors and natural gas.
The Chinese vice premier, also the top economic adviser to Chinese President Xi Jinping, is expected to present the deal to the U.S. on Friday.
Experts, however, remain skeptical over how effective such a deal would be in narrowing China's sizable trade surplus with the U.S.
They argue that, even if China sharply increases its purchases of American goods in the short term, it probably wouldn't come close to the proposed 200 billion dollars.
Plus, the U.S. is already running at its full productive capacity, so it would be unrealistic for the U.S. to meet greater demands from China.
President Trump's top economic adviser, Larry Kudlow, says Washington's stance on trade with China remains the same.
He says the U.S. will continue to pressure Beijing to open its market to U.S. companies, by removing trade barriers and respecting intellectual property rights.
With the U.S. eager to grab the upper-hand in the remaining negotiations, it remains to be seen whether the two world's largest economies can arrive at a compromise, avoiding a devastating trade clash.
Choi Si-young, Arirang News.
