Trump says China wants to restart trade talks

President Donald Trump told media at a G7 summit in France that China is ready to negotiate a trade deal.

Rough cut - no reporter narration.

The president said China had contacted U.S. trade officials overnight to say Beijing wanted to return to the negotiating table.

China's lead negotiator in the U.S. trade talks earlier on Monday (August 26) said Beijing was willing to resolve its trade dispute with the United States through 'calm negotiations' and resolutely opposed the escalation of the conflict.

Trump hailed Chinese President Xi Jinping as a great leader and said the prospect of talks was a very positive development for the world.

"You probably read the breaking news a little while ago that they want to make a deal.

They just came out and they want calm," Trump told media at a photo opportunity with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi.

An increasingly bitter trade war between the world's two largest economies sharply escalated on Friday (August 23), with both sides leveling more tariffs on each other's exports.

Before Trump spoke, global stock markets reeled, while China's yuan currency fell to a fresh 11-year low.

Investors streamed into the safe harbors of sovereign bonds and gold.

Negotiations would start very soon, Trump said.

"I think we are going to have a deal," he added.

"They have supply chains that are unbelievably intricate and people are all leaving and they are going to other countries, including the United States by the way, we are going to get a lot of them too."