MNI EXCLUSIVE: Ex-Trump Advisors Say HK Bill To Be Signed

By Evan Ryser

     WASHINGTON (MNI) - President Trump is set to sign legislation designed to

support Hong Kong protestors despite suggestions he might veto the bill to help

clear a path for a phase one trade deal with China, ex-advisors told MNI.

     "He is going to sign it," Derek Scissors, who has advised Trump said in an

interview.

     Dan DiMicco, senior trade and economic adviser to Trump during the

presidential campaign, said: "If he doesn't sign and delays it, it would be a

mistake."

     "I don't see any way that the President doesn't sign it."

     The House of Representatives passed a bill Wednesday intended to support

protesters in Hong Kong and send a warning to China about human rights.

     Trump, speaking on "Fox and Friends," said he was balancing priorities in

the broader U.S.-China relationship.

     "We have to stand with Hong Kong, but I'm also standing with President Xi,

he's a friend of mine," Trump said Friday.

     "The China deal is coming along very well. It's a question of whether or

not I want to make it," Trump said at an event at the White House Friday.

     --SANCTIONS

     The bill was unanimously approved by the Senate Tuesday and passed the

House Wednesday 417 to 1. The bill, which has angered Beijing, would require

annual reviews of Hong Kong's special status under U.S. law and sanction

officials deemed responsible for human rights abuses and undermining the city's

autonomy.

     It would be difficult for Trump to veto the bill given that it passed with

almost no objections, even though a veto would require a two-thirds majority in

both the Senate and the House.

     While the president would regularly be bound by a 10-day limit to sign or

veto, Trump could stall by asking the Senate for a slight modification in the

bill, delaying a signature, Scissors said.

     The bill is tied to the trade talks and the timing of his signature will

depend on what the president decides to do with an additional 15% tariff on

about $300 billion in Chinese goods due to come into effect Dec. 15, Scissors

said, currently a resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute.

     "I don't think we are going to get the 12/15 tariffs," Scissors said. " I

think those get postponed indefinitely."

     "The political debate [in the administration] is over the already-in-place

Sept. 1st tariffs which the Chinese want removed and that is politically riskier

for the president. That requires him to say 'I got more from the Chinese.'"

--MNI Washington Bureau; +1 202 371 2121; email: evan.ryser@marketnews.com

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