Trump nominee Branstad hopes personal relationship with Chinese will help improve U.S. ties, aims to reopen beef purchases
Source: By Bloomberg News • Posted: Friday, February 24, 2017
President Donald Trump’s pick to be the U.S. ambassador to China, former Iowa Gov. Terry Branstad, emphasized friendship between the countries as he prepared to meet with China’s ambassador during a trip this week to Washington.
Cordial ties are “going to be an important thing” between the two nations, Branstad said Thursday in an interview after speaking at a U.S. Department of Agriculture conference in Arlington, Virginia. “If you think of the history, there have been a lot of rocky times. It gets worse, and then it gets better. But I hope I can play a constructive role in helping to improve the relations.”
Business leaders and traders in China and the U.S. have searched for clues as to how Trump will approach relations between the world’s two biggest economies. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin told Bloomberg on Thursday that there is no urgency to designate China a currency manipulator, contradicting an October pledge by then-candidate Trump to direct Treasury to name China a manipulator on the first day of his administration.