Trump Says He’ll Meet Xi Twice More This Year

SPEAKER_1 (0:02)

Bloomberg Audio Studios, Podcasts, Radio, News.

SPEAKER_2 (0:08)

This is Bloomberg Businessweek Daily, reporting from the magazine that helps global leaders stay ahead. With insight on the people, companies, and trends shaping today's complex economy. Plus, global business, finance, and tech news as it happens. The Bloomberg Businessweek Daily Podcast with Carol Massar and Tim Stenovec.

Tim Stenovec (0:32)

We're all focused on geopolitics. Specifically, this first part, when it comes to the relationship between the US and China. President Trump said he would meet again with Chinese leader Xi Jinping in November, following what he said was a successful summit in Washington. Watching all of this closely, I don't think she was at the state dinner last night.

SPEAKER_2 (0:50)

Maybe she was.

Tim Stenovec (0:51)

Either maybe. Jenny Welch, Bloomberg Economics Chief Geoeconomics Analyst. She joins us from our Washington DC Bureau. Jenny, were you there? I didn't see you in the pictures with Jensen or Elon.

Jennifer Welch (1:01)

No, Seabass isn't really my thing.

Rudina Seseri (1:05)

But that was on the... I hear you.

Tim Stenovec (1:06)

So, okay, that is so interesting. I'm glad you went there. I think the last thing I read before I went to bed last night was the menu.

Yeah, I love this stuff. And a lot of thought goes into this. And they wanted to highlight cuisine from the United States, but give what they said was a...

Carol Massar (1:24)

Nod?

Tim Stenovec (1:25)

Yeah, like a nod to China with the way that the food was presented. You went... Sea Bass was the main course. There was a lot of other stuff in this three course meal. How do we read into that part of the dinner?

Jennifer Welch (1:37)

I won't proclaim to be an expert on the culinary decisions. I do think they had hot scallion oil that they kind of embedded into some of the meals as a way of paying tribute to Chinese cuisine.

I did live in the area of China that Xi Jinping is from, and I can tell you that the food there is delicious, but it didn't seem to be fully reflected in the menu that they had. It's a level of spice that I'm not sure is comfortable for President Trump, but all optics around the dinner and the broader summit are rather positive. I think the question is to bring it back to the culinary theme is, was the beef really there? What was the substance behind the conversations that were happening?

Carol Massar (2:14)

Substance, right?

Like a lot of pomp and circumstance, but was there a lot of substance that came out of this?

Or is it, Jenny, just that these two leaders are talking is important?

Jennifer Welch (2:26)

That's certainly, I think, how the White House and in particular President Trump would frame it, right? He sees his role in this relationship as being the stabilizer, as having a good relationship with President Xi despite the rivalry and using that to provide kind of a ballast for the competition. But what I would say as someone who has staffed these kind of summits before is, yes, that's true. And it is difficult to get many deliverables out of a relationship between countries that don't get along in many ways, but this is a state visit. That's a different caliber of summit. In the last time that President Xi Jinping made a state visit, which was during the Obama administration, so over a decade ago, there were a number of concrete deliverables. Granted, not all of them came to fruition, but state visits are usually used to extract deliverables. And in particular, when the US is hosting deliverables that matter to the US national interest.

Tim Stenovec (3:17)

Do you like something regarding soybeans? The president said, he says, I think our farmers will be very happy, and the only thing I can think of is the soybean purchases. Is that going to happen?

Jennifer Welch (3:26)

Possibly soybeans. He could also be referencing that the Board of Trade that was established previously between the US and China has been discussing bringing down tariffs on a select number of what is considered non-sensitive goods that might include US agricultural products, as well as LNG. They, I think, are looking to announce something on that early next week. But, yes, you point to a really good question, which is what is the status of Chinese purchase agreements? The fact that we haven't gotten any written affirmation from either side on China falling through, some of which that only the United States has confirmed Beijing has signed up for in May.

We don't even have necessarily confirmation from Beijing that they are planning on doing these additional agricultural purchases that Washington said they would. So there's a lot of ambiguity there. Granted, the US hasn't put out its readout yet, so maybe some of these details are still withcoming, the Chinese put their eyes out last night. There wasn't a huge amount of detail there, and certainly nothing about these purchase agreements.