PM Modi's fist bump with Trump, Abe steals the show at G20

US President Donald Trump's administration has trade feuds with India, Japan and Germany.

US President Donald Trump on Friday said he hoped for productive talks with Chinese President Xi Jinping on a trade war that is casting a shadow on global growth, but said he had not made any promises about a reprieve from escalating tariffs.

The trade feud and signs of a global slowdown have loomed over a two-day Group of 20 (G20) summit in the Japanese city of Osaka, where Trump and Xi met in passing, and prepared for one-on-one talks on Saturday.

To lay the groundwork for the talks, Chinese Vice Premier Liu He met Trump's treasury secretary, Steven Mnuchin, and Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer at the hotel where the US delegation was staying, a source familiar with the talks said.

Trump's administration also has trade feuds with India, Japan and Germany, whose leaders he met on Friday.

Trump said he saw US trade prospects improving, days after criticising the US-Japan security treaty and demanding that India withdraw retaliatory tariffs.

"I think we’re going to have some very big things to announce. Very big trade deal," Trump said before he began talks with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, but gave no details.

A White House official said the two leaders had called on their teams to work on mutually beneficial trade solutions.

The G20 leaders were also struggling to find common ground on issues such as information security, climate change and migration, said Svetlana Lukash, a Russian official helping to coordinate the meetings.

A White House official took a more positive view, saying there was a “good sense of unity in the room” between most leaders on working together on economic issues.

"China was less positive in its outlook which was in stark contrast to basically everybody else,” said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity.
 

China has said it hoped the United States would meet halfway on the issues.

The world's two biggest economies are locked in a trade dispute and expectations have dimmed that Trump and Xi can ease the tension when they meet on the sidelines of the meeting.

"At a minimum, it will be productive. We’ll see what happens and what comes out of it," Trump told reporters after a series of meetings with leaders where he made clear that his priority was two-way trade deals to boost the US economy.

Asked, however, if he had promised Xi a six-month reprieve on imposing new tariffs on a $300 billion list of Chinese imports, Trump said, "No."

Trump has already imposed tariffs on $250 billion of Chinese imports and is threatening to extend those to another $300 billion of goods, effectively everything China exports to the United States. China has retaliated with tariffs on US imports.

Trump also made a push to discuss US concerns about Chinese telecoms equipment maker Huawei.

The United States has pressed its allies to shun Huawei in their fifth generation, or 5G, networks on security grounds, and it has also suggested it could be a factor in a trade deal with Xi.

"We actually sell Huawei many of its parts. So we’re going to be discussing that and also how India fits in. And we’ll be discussing Huawei," Trump said at his meeting with Modi.

Xi also warned about the protectionist steps he said some developed countries were taking.

"All this is destroying the global trade order ... This also impacts common interests of our countries, overshadows peace and stability worldwide," Xi told a gathering of leaders of the BRICS grouping on the sidelines of the G20 meet.

Modi, at the same meeting, called for a focus on reforming the World Trade Organization (WTO) and Russian President Vladimir Putin decried what he called efforts to destroy the Geneva-based body.

"We consider counter-productive any attempts to destroy WTO or to lower its role," Putin said.

The situation of the global economy was worrying, as trade felt the effect of "protectionism (and) politically motivated restrictions", he added.

Trump, who often castigates trading partners on Twitter and at raucous political rallies, put a positive spin on trade developments in his meetings.

"I appreciate the fact that you're sending many automobile companies into Michigan and Ohio and Pennsylvania and North Carolina," Trump told Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, who had presented him with a map showing the locations of Japanese auto investments in the United States.

Abe urged G20 leaders to send a strong message in support of free and fair trade, warning that trade and geopolitical tensions were rising and downside risks to the global economy prevailed.

He also said he wanted to see momentum towards WTO reform.