US and Chinese trade negotiators are working on nailing down a Phase 1 deal for their presidents to sign next month, US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin has said.

Professor Richard Wolff tells Boom Bust it’s hard to say if US President Donald Trump is looking for an agreement with Beijing.

“Trump typically makes tremendous grand deal statements about breakthroughs in talks with China which then turn out not to be the case,” he says, adding that afterwards Trump usually blames the Chinese.

“So, it’s kind of a game being played here…”

Wolff points to the IMF statistics indicating that “damage being done around the world (including to the United States) from the trade war is turning people (including Americans) against Trump as the obvious instigator.”

The economist says: “The deal with the Chinese is no longer helping him position himself as Mr. America First, and so he’s losing the combativeness that he wants to make such a theater around.”

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