President Donald Trump stated on Wednesday that a trade deal between the U.S. and China will likely take on a “different structure.”
“Our Trade Deal with China is moving along nicely,” the President tweeted, “but in the end, we will probably have to use a different structure in that this will be too hard to get done and to verify results after completion.”
Trump’s tweet comes as the White House and China attempt to strike a deal on trade following months of tensions, tariffs, and sanctions between the two countries.
However, the president did not make clear what a “different structure” would look like.
Negotiators from Washington and Beijing are looking to avoid a full-blown trade war between the two world’s top two economies.
The Trump administration has changed their mind to impose tariffs on $150 billion in Chinese products after Beijing announced that it would buy more American agricultural and energy products.
According to Reuters, on Tuesday, U.S. and Chinese negotiators were completing a potential deal that would lift a U.S. ban on American companies selling components to Chinese telecommunications giant ZTE.
A source told Reuters that there was a “handshake deal” to lift the ban and that an agreement could be clinched by next week.
Meanwhile, Trump is under heavy criticism from Senate Republicans over his trade talks with China, which they see as delivering far less than he promised.
Several GOP senators stated that Trump has ended on the losing side of the negotiations and have been upset by his talk of lifting the sanctions on ZTE.
The Senate Banking Committee on Tuesday voted overwhelmingly in favor of an amendment to block Trump from easing penalties on ZTE, which violated U.S. sanctions by selling equipment to North Korea and Iran. The panel’s action followed a similar vote by a House panel last week.
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