Donald Trump’s top agricultural official has said Chinese “attitudes” towards striking a trade deal with the US have hardened, in the latest sign that negotiations to resolve the conflict hanging over the global economy have hit a rough patch.
Sonny Perdue, the US agriculture secretary, said that while he hoped Beijing would agree to “significant increases” in purchases of US farm products in a deal, China’s willingness to make final concessions on several issues was unclear.
“It’s mostly attitudes. There doesn’t seem to be as much aggressive passion for curing some of these things as we would like to see,” he said in an interview with the Financial Times.