Upcoming meeting with Xi to be difficult: Trump

Washington March 31 (IANS) The US President Donald Trump predicted a very difficult meeting with his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping whom he has invited to his mansion in Florida (Mar-a-Lago) in early April.

The meeting next week with China will be a very difficult one in that we can no longer have massive trade deficits and job losses. American companies must be prepared to look at other alternatives Donald Trump said in two Twitter messages.

The meeting agenda will have a strong economic and commercial nature Xinhua news agency reported on Friday.

During his campaign and also as President Trump has blamed China -- in addition to Mexico -- for the US trade deficit and job losses due to offshore outsourcing a trend that he has promised to change.

However Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lu Kang said that 40 per cent of China s trade surplus with the United States came from US companies in China.

Lu also argued that bilateral trade has created 2.6 million jobs in the US and said the two countries are highly complementary.

--IANS
qd/