U.S. Sen. Dave McCormick said Friday the Trump administration is making progress toward finalizing trade deals with multiple countries.
McCormick said U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer told him during a meeting this week that “a number of countries had come forward with very specific proposals, in the dozens,” and the administration was reviewing the proposals.
“He was pretty optimistic there was going to be an opportunity to come out in the days, maybe weeks ahead with a number of deals that would sort of provide a template,” McCormick said during a stop at Rico’s Restaurant in Ross, where he met with leaders of the Pittsburgh Regional Building Trades Council.
McCormick’s update comes on the heels of comments made by President Donald Trump indicating as many as 200 trade deals had been reached.
Trump made the claim in a Time magazine interview but did not say which countries the administration had reached deals with.
“I would say, over the next three to four weeks, and we’re finished, by the way,” Trump said in the interview.
Trump announced earlier this month that he was pausing most of his hefty reciprocal tariffs on imported goods for 90 days, providing time for trade deals to be negotiated. The 90-day pause did not apply to China.
Trump in recent days has offered mixed messages about the status of talks with China, even as Beijing has denied that negotiations between the world’s two largest economies are taking place.
“We’re meeting with China. We’re doing fine with everybody,” Trump said in the Time interview.
But he also told Time he would not call President Xi Jinping if his Chinese counterpart does not call him first. Then, Trump said such a call had occurred, without giving details.
The U.S. president declined to answer when asked by reporters Friday when he spoke with Xi, saying, “I’ll let you know at the appropriate time. Let’s see if we can make a deal.”
Regarding negotiating with China, McCormick said, “China is going to be a tough nut to crack because it’s, in many ways, the most unfair” in terms of trade policies.
“Of all the countries that are unfair, China is sort of the top of the list. It’s also more problematic because China is truly a geopolitical adversary, so when they’re stealing our intellectual property or when they’re buying our most sophisticated technology and not giving us access to Chinese markets, it poses a growing national security threat,” McCormick said.
“My guess is, that one will take a little bit longer” to negotiate, McCormick added. “I think our position in the United States is strengthened by the fact that we’ll have made deals with other countries, and that will put additional pressure on China.”
The Associated Press contributed.