WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross on Tuesday told CNBC that President Donald Trump’s objectives on a trade deal with China have not changed and that Trump is under no time pressure to complete a deal.

Ross also said that planned tariffs on Chinese imports will be imposed on Dec. 15 unless there is some real reason to postpone, such as substantive progress in talks. He said that he expects staff-level talks with China to continue but there are no high-level meetings scheduled.

“The president’s objective always has been to get the right deal, independently of when or anything else like that. So his objectives haven’t changed. And if we don’t have a deal he’s perfectly happy to continue with the tariffs,” Ross said in an interview. “So he feels we’re in a pretty good position one way or another.”