President Donald Trump in the Oval Office on February 7, 2019. He said he does not expect to manage a meeting with China’s Xi Jinping before a March 1 deadline in the US-China trade war (Brendan Smialowski)

Washington (AFP) – US President Donald Trump said Thursday he does not expect to meet his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping before a March 1 deadline in trade war negotiations between the two economic superpowers.

“Not yet,” Trump told reporters at the White House when asked if a meeting had been arranged for within the next month.

Asked if a meeting could happen before March 1, he said: “No.”

Trump has said that final resolution of the trade dispute would depend on him and Xi meeting “in the near future.” There had been speculation that Trump might meet the Chinese leader after he flies to Vietnam in late February for a summit with North Korea’s Kim Jong Un.

The United States has threatened to more than double existing tariffs on Chinese goods at the start of March if there is no agreement on measures to reform China’s trade practices, which Washington says are deeply unfair.

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