CBS’s Brennan Grills Trump Official Over China Trade Deal Claims: The WSJ Says You’re Playing a ‘Shell Game’

CBS News’s Margaret Brennan confronted U.S. trade representative Jamieson Greer Sunday on President Donald Trump’s claim that the Chinese agreed to “fantastic” upcoming purchases of U.S. soybeans and aircraft.

“We did see China on Saturday release a statement confirming some of the deals with the U.S., but it was pretty vague,” Brennan said on Face the Nation. “There was no mention of the promise to buy 750 Boeing planes that President Trump told reporters about if the first 200 go well. China said there was a guarantee by the u.s. to supply aircraft engines, but it didn’t mention the 400 to 450 G.E. engines the president announced. G.E. hasn’t commented either. How locked in are these agreements?

“So the 200 Boeings, those are locked in,” Greer answered. “There’s obviously a future to have more Boeings. The reality is, this is the first major purchase by China in almost 10 years…And like the president said, you know, when Boeing delivers, there’s a lot of upside there. With respect to some of the other details, we’re finalizing a fact sheet that we’ll hopefully get out very soon so we can be clearer about the double-digit increase in agriculture purchases we expect from the Chinese.”

Brennan next hit Greer with a Wall Street Journal opinion piece questioning Trump’s assertions on soybean sales.

“On the [agricultural] products, the conservative Wall Street Journal editorial board questioned whether the summit achieved any of the stated wins because of how vague these things have been,” Brennan began. “They said Mr. Trump boasted about the ‘fantastic’ Chinese purchases of U.S. soybeans and aircraft, but China didn’t confirm the sales. ‘And by our count, this is the second time China has bought the same American soybeans, or is it the third?’ They’re kind of arguing you’re playing a shell game here with like re-announcing past deals on past agreements to purchase over a period of time. Can you answer these conservative skeptics with any specifics?”

“So, first of all, we’ve had had a deal in place with the Chinese since October that they would buy 25 million metric tons of soybeans for each year of the president’s administration, so that deal is still in force,” Greer answered.

“What we expect with the new purchase agreements, where the specific number will be announced very soon — double-digit purchases of aggregate agricultural products. When I say aggregate, I mean everything else. That could be soybeans, that could be beef, that could be grains, that could be dairy products, all kinds of things.”

“So, still not nailed down, just an aggregate agreement,” Brennan asserted.

Watch the clip above via CBS News’s Face The Nation.

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