President Trump says that trade deals are on the way with the European Union and China (“Trump predicts trade deal with China, vows ‘100%’ chance of EU agreement,” USA Today, April 17, 2025).
“There will be a trade deal 100%” with the EU, Trump said. “They want to make one very, very much. And we’re going to make a trade deal. I fully expect it. But it will be a fair deal.”
The administration says that in the days since it imposed reciprocal tariffs in early April, more than 75 countries have expressed their desire to make new trade agreements with the United States, with at least 15 submitting proposals.
In response to the willingness of many countries to negotiate and to refrain from retaliatory tariff measures, on April 9 the U.S. paused many of its new tariffs (except for a 10 percent “baseline”). But not the tariffs on China, which did retaliate against Trump’s steep new tariffs on China with steep new tariffs on the U.S.
Instead, Trump further increased the tariffs on Chinese goods, for a total new tariff burden of 145 percent in many cases. China’s tariffs on U.S. goods are at 125 percent.
The administration has also “begun urging foreign trading partners to transition their economies away from reliance on cheap Chinese goods while threatening possible retaliation if countries pivot toward Beijing.”
What kind of deal?
Trump says that a deal with China is also coming, maybe in three or four weeks. “I believe we’re going to have a deal with China. And if we don’t, we’re going to have a deal anyway, because we’re going to set a certain target, and that’s going to be it.”
If the U.S. and China make a new trade agreement, will it be a deal that incorporates a plausible commitment from China to never engage in intellectual property theft?
Will it be a deal according to which no products moving from China to the United States any longer depend in whole or in part on slave labor? Will it end the imprisonment and murder of targeted ethnic and religious minorities?
Will it be a deal that no longer generates funding for the Chinese Communist Party and its domestic and international predation?
