Trump, he claims there will be a "complete" deal and a "very big" deal else Tariffs start on March 1.

Big Deal or Else

“This isn’t going to be a small deal with China. This is either going to be a very big deal, or it’s going to be a deal that we’ll just postpone for a little while,” Trump told reporters at the White House, without elaborating.

China Is Counting On Trump-Xi Meeting to Settle Trade Fight

The Wall Street Journal reports China Is Counting On Trump-Xi Meeting to Settle Trade Fight

By agreeing to a meeting, some of Mr. Trump’s advisers believe the president is putting himself in a position where he will face enormous pressure not to escalate tariffs on Chinese goods from 10% now to 25% on March 2, as he has threatened. That’s because the build-up for the meeting—and the expectations of a deal—will be so high that a negative outcome would tank markets globally and batter both economies.

That is especially the case if the two leaders were to meet in China, as Chinese officials want. A decision then to raise tariffs would be a slap in the face for the Chinese leader, whom Mr. Trump regularly refers to as a friend. Instead, the pressure would be on the U.S. to reduce tariffs.

Some of Mr. Trump’s advisers are urging that he meet elsewhere with Mr. Xi, either in a third country or even at Mr. Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida. Mr. Brilliant said he doubts a decision about the location will be made until closer to the March deadline.

“The best hope for getting a deal is a face-to face-meeting” between the two leaders, said Brookings Institution China scholar David Dollar. “The U.S. economy is decelerating and the pressure is on Trump is to make a deal.”

Mr. Dollar added that even keeping the current 10% tariffs in place “would be hard for Xi Jinping to accept.”

Complete Deal

Looking for China to open their Markets not only to Financial Services, which they are now doing, but also to our Manufacturing, Farmers and other U.S. businesses and industries. Without this a deal would be unacceptable!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 31, 2019

That clearly reads complete deal by March 1 or Tariffs.

China’s top trade negotiators are in the U.S. meeting with our representatives. Meetings are going well with good intent and spirit on both sides. China does not want an increase in Tariffs and feels they will do much better if they make a deal. They are correct. I will be......

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 31, 2019

....meeting with their top leaders and representatives today in the Oval Office. No final deal will be made until my friend President Xi, and I, meet in the near future to discuss and agree on some of the long standing and more difficult points. Very comprehensive transaction....

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 31, 2019

Countdown Begins

In one month we will see just what Trump meant if anything.

Of course, getting an agreement and having it respected are two different things.

Expectations

• There will be a deal.
• The "bigness" of the deal is in doubt both short- and long-term.
• If the US trade deficit with China shrinks it is highly likely to go up elsewhere.
• China might temporarily engineer a smaller trade surplus with the US for a while, then normal patterns will resume.

The notion the US trade deficit will shrink when the US has a budget deficit of $1 trillion as far as the eye can see is more than a bit questionable.