AS U.S.-China trade talks undergo more advances and setbacks than a ping-pong match, South Carolina businessman John Ling is increasingly pessimistic that any meaningful trade deal will be reached under Donald Trump.

“I’m becoming very doubtful there will be any deal that would solve the current problem,” said Ling, a consultant for Chinese firms doing business in the United States.

The past week has cast the outlook for a trade deal between the United States and China into deeper confusion. Trump rattled markets Tuesday last week by suggesting a phase-one trade deal may have to wait until after the 2020 elections. Then, two days later, the U.S. president said the talks are “moving right along” and people familiar with the negotiations said the sides are close to agreeing on a pact.

On Friday, White House economic adviser Larry Kudlow said a deal is coming down to the final stages but he acknowledged “delicate” proposals like Chinese farm purchases are still being discussed. Meanwhile, the Trump administration is leaving open the prospect of slapping tariffs on another US$160 billion in Chinese goods in just over a week Dec. 15 if nothing changes.

Trump has a history of indulging in brinkmanship to dial up the pressure in trade negotiations, especially as deadlines approach.

Even if that’s his strategy to win concessions, it’s doing little to help U.S. companies that import from China who say they can’t plan for next year when they don’t know what’s coming next week or month. U.S. importers pay the duties when the products enter the country — often passing the cost onto consumers — even though Trump insists the tariffs are paid by China.

“I’m very frustrated, absolutely,” Curt Christian, a Nashville, Tennessee-based furniture importer, said Thursday after days of back-and-forth headlines and seesawing markets. “I don’t know how to plan. That’s the issue.”

Christian already lost a furniture business in the early 2000s. He eventually picked himself up and created a new company, Function First Furniture, that supplies furniture to university dormitories and student housing developers. His revenue is in the tens of millions of dollars.

Christian said he needs more time to cope with the fallout from tariffs. While he imports some furniture from Vietnam and Malaysia, 70 percent still comes from China. “Give me time to move, because I can’t just take US$35 million worth of product and move it overnight,” he said. “You can’t just turn a battleship.”

Other firms give similar testimonies of being unable to shift investment plans when they don’t know how long the trade war will last. (SD-Agencies)