With just seven weeks until the US mid-term elections, one of President Donald Trump's former campaign directors, Bryan Lanza, the managing director of communications firm Mercury, says the race is on to resolve the China-US trade spat.
"He (Trump) wants a resolution. He respects China as a competitor. He understands the US has a lot of work to do to sort of focus and be an equal competitor with China," Lanza said.
And Lanza expects to see the resolution before the mid-term election, "primarily because once presidential politics come into play, it pollutes things, it muddies the water, it makes it much harder. Up until the mid-term election, probably the best thing to do is to resolve this trade dispute."
"He comes from the business community and understands that two people can walk away with a deal happy and come back with another deal," Lanza told CGTN, stressing that "I think that is where his heart is, and he can instinctively find a deal both parties can walk away with and can claim victory. I think the opportunities are for both of us."
Lanza also mentioned that the key to dealing with Trump is to sew things up quickly. "During the campaign, we talked about the trade imbalance. Hopefully we can resolve that sooner. But the longer we have this conversation, the more and more issues there will be. So I tell people you need to solve your dispute as quick as possible," Lanza explained.
Some Chinese investors are concerned about doing business with the US. But he advised them to push forward with deals. "I think if you look at what the president did during the campaign, he welcomes business opportunities with the Chinese community, with Chinese investors. It's got to be a position that works for everybody, it can't be a position where people just take, and don't contribute as well."
In addition, Lanza suggested people look at Trump's policies and action rather than focus on his tweets.
"What I tell clients is, that you have to focus on policy, not rhetoric. If you look at policies he's pushing forward, if you look at actions, it's more toward interlinks; sorts of relationships, especially how close our relationships are," Lanza said.
