Trump weighs Taiwan arms sales as part of negotiations with China, U.S. trade representative says
U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer said Sunday that President Trump plans to use arms sales to Taiwan as part of broader U.S.-China negotiations, noting that previous presidents have also suspended sales.
“Well, just remember that the United States has sold weapons to Taiwan for many years. There have also been many times when they haven’t sold them. You know, President. [Barack] Obama, you know, took a break on arms sales. President [George W.] Bush did it,” Mr. Greer said Sunday on ABC’s “This Week.”
“Right now, the president is thinking about how to move forward on this. The reality is that it’s really important for the United States and China to have a stable relationship,” he added. “Those are two significant savings.”
Mr. Greer noted that the issue of arms sales to Taiwan is one that the Chinese “always raise.”
He said tariffs were not discussed directly between Mr. Trump and President Xi Jinping at their summit last week in Beijing because staff-level negotiations had already resolved those issues.
Mr. Greer said he was considering establishing a “chamber of commerce” with China to discuss tariff treatment of certain non-sensitive products such as agricultural products, Boeing planes and medical devices.
He argued that the biggest achievement of the Beijing summit was reestablishing stable communication channels with China, which he said had been broken under the Biden administration.
He cited several tangible positive outcomes from the meeting, including:
• China re-registers US beef and chicken export facilities.
• China agrees to review US biotechnology specifications/approvals.
• An agreement for 200 Boeing planes.
• Agreement on the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula as a common goal.
Asked if the Chinese had committed to trying to open the Strait of Hormuz, Mr. Greer said that Mr. Trump had not asked China to take direct action regarding the strait, but had secured a commitment that Beijing would not provide material support to Iran.
“The Chinese clearly have an interest in these straits being open. Again, I was at those meetings and that’s what the Chinese said,” he said. “You know they want to make sure no one imposes a toll.”
