WASHINGTON -- President Donald Trump said on Monday that trade talks with China were under way and any deal would need to be somewhat tilted in favor of the United States.
Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping agreed in a meeting on Saturday at a Group of 20 summit in Japan to restart trade talks after the last major round of negotiations collapsed in May.
Global automakers and suppliers have a huge stake in the outcome of the talks, particularly with several companies planning to export more light vehicles and parts from China to the U.S.
Trump told reporters on Monday that U.S. and Chinese negotiators were "speaking very much on phone but they are also meeting. It essentially has already begun."
"I think we have a good chance of making a deal," Trump said.
He said he expected China's negotiating position to move closer to Washington's. Talks broke down in May after the United States accused China of backtracking on reform pledges.
Trump said China has had a "big advantage" over the United States in trade for "many years."
"So obviously you can't make a 50-50 deal. It has to be a deal that is somewhat tilted to our advantage," Trump said.
Meanwhile, White House trade adviser Peter Navarro said on Tuesday U.S. trade talks with China are heading in the right direction and any concessions to Beijing on Huawei Technologies was small in the context of a larger trade deal.
"We're headed in a very good direction," Navarro said in an interview with CNBC. "It's complicated, as the president said, correctly, this will take time and we want to get it right. So let's get it right."
The partial lifting of restrictions on Huawei was a key element of the previous agreement, which allows expanded sales of U.S. technology supplies to the Chinese telecommunications giant. Washington put Huawei on an export blacklist in May, citing national security concerns over its 5G network technology.
Navarro played down the concession on Huawei, saying U.S. policy with respect to the 5G component has not changed.
"All we've done basically is to allow the sale of chips to Huawei and these are lower tech items which do not impact national security whatever," Navarro said.
"Selling chips to Huawei, a small amount of chips -- less than $1 billion a year -- in the short run is small in the scheme of things."
