US-China trade deal 2nd phase to begin soon: Trump

US President Donald Trump on Tuesday said the second phase of negotiations for the US-China trade deal would begin soon and asserted that the two countries never had a better relationship despite the recent rough patch. He also said he has a great relationship with Chinese President Xi Jinping.

"My relationship with Xi is extraordinary. He's for China, I'm for the US but other than that, we love each other," the American president said at the World Economic Forum (WEF) annual summit in Davos.

He also announced that the US will join the 1 trillion trees initiative being launched at WEF.

"This is a time for optimism and not for pessimism. We must reject perennial prophets of doom who have been making alarmist predictions," Trump said.

Talking about reforms undertaken by his government, Trump said, "I knew that if we unleashed the potential of our people, cut taxes, slashed regulation, fixed broken trade deals and fully tapped American energy, that prosperity would come thundering back and that is exactly what happened."

"Years of economic stagnation have given way to a roaring geyser of opportunity," he added.

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"We have launched a historic step of removing job killing regulations. We are removing all archaic laws. Today I urge the nations to follow our example and liberate their citizens from the shackles of bureaucracy and other archaic laws. There is no better place on the earth than the United States," he asserted.

Trump further said his administration is focussing on trade, which was neglected by his predecessors.

"We are also addressing chronic problems that undermined our trade. Our leaders earlier didn't do anything on this. The phase two negotiations for our China trade deal is going to start soon. Our relationship with China has never been better. We went through a rough patch, but things are good now. I've a great relationship with President Xi," Trump said.

"Our relationship with China right now has probably never been better. China has made on trade, particularly in intellectual property, ending forced technology transfers, lifting trade barriers on agricultural goods, opening up the financial sector and maintaining a stable currency," Trump said.

The first phase of the deal marks a de-escalation in the trade war pitting the two powerful economic giants against each other for nearly two years.

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