President Trump and Vice-Premier Liu Deliver Remarks During Luncheon Celebrating U.S-China Trade Agreement

CTH: After the signing ceremony to celebrate a historic U.S-China ‘phase-one’ trade agreement, President Trump and the U.S. trade delegation hosted Vice-Premier Liu He and the Chinese delegation for a luncheon. [Video and Transcript Below]

[Transcript] – PRESIDENT TRUMP: I thought that we would do it the way other; that the more I thought about this, the better it is. It’s — you can get your arms around it better the way we’ve got it. I like it better the way we’ve done it.

I just want to say this is a great day for both China and the United States. This is an agreement that people have been talking about for 40 years and never were able to get even a piece of paper signed. And we never had an agreement. And this is going to be a great agreement for both countries. It’s far greater than $200 billion, and it’ll grow every year. It also unifies the countries.

And President Xi has been so nice as to talk about other things having to do — outside of the agreement — such as fentanyl; we’re working on that.

We’re going to be working very closely together on North Korea. And as I said inside, it’s like a world-class chess match or poker match. We are going to work together, and we’re going to work together for the benefit of our countries, but also, very importantly, for the benefit of the world.

So this is very big day for the United States. This is a very big day for China. This is a day that nobody thought could happen, and it did happen. So it’s my honor to be here.

And I have to say, Mr. Vice Premier, it’s been a great honor to become your friend. Thank you very much. read more