WASHINGTON — President Trump is cheerleading his way past the economic warning signs that have rattled financial markets and unnerved economists, insisting that the United States has an advantage in a crucial first round of trade negotiations beginning on Monday in Beijing. It helps his case that the Labor Department published a jobs report for December that soared past expectations. “China’s not doing very well now,” Mr. Trump said in a news conference at the White House, hours after the report came out on Friday. We are doing very well.”Mr. Trump is correct about China’s economy, which by several measures appears to be hobbled by American tariffs on $250 billion worth of Chinese imports. An American delegation of midlevel trade officials will begin two days of talks with their counterparts on Monday in Beijing, led by Jeffrey Gerrish, the deputy United States trade representative, and David Malpass, the Treasury Department’s under secretary for international affairs.

Source: New York Times January 06, 2019 21:33 UTC