Jamie Dimon: If Trump can't get a good deal at the G20 Summit, he should walk away.”

Jamie Dimon has a direct message for President Donald Trump ahead of trade talks with Chinese President Xi Jinping at the G20 Summit: Don’t agree to a deal just for the sake of getting one.

JPMorgan Chase (JPM) CEO Jamie Dimon says that we could get a trade deal with China, “maybe if we're lucky ... by the end of the year.” But he also said that if President Donald Trump “can’t get a good deal, then he should walk away. That's a serious statement I just said: If he can't get a good deal, he should walk away.”

In an interview this week covering a range of topics at the unveiling of JPMorgan Chase's new flagship bank branch, Dimon said that the failure to get a deal done with China “will have ramifications, but that's life in the fast lanes. We'll survive."

Asked about the president’s use of tariffs, Dimon said: “I have to confess I wouldn't have done it.” Dimon says he would have preferred marshaling U.S. allies to square off against China, but now believes tariffs have been effective in helping to force China to negotiate.

‘We don’t expect a quick resolution at this point’
As for not favoring tariffs, Dimon notes that “a lot of people have said the same thing. But we would like a successful conclusion. I agree with the fact that there's serious trade issues with China, and he's laid them out. IP, lack of bilateral investment rights, regulatory barriers, a whole bunch of stuff, state-owned enterprise. Those are legitimate complaints, which we need to resolve. We did not originally think he should do tariffs. We thought he should do TPP [Trans-Pacific Partnership] and get our allies together, and then face off against China. Not angering China, just tell China these are the terms of trade.”

Does Dimon expect to get a deal to emerge this weekend? “I think the best you can expect is that they have a good meeting, that they start renegotiating, that the tariffs are off for now, and give the teams a chance to negotiate a deal, which maybe if we're lucky could be done by the end of the year,” he said. “We all want the president to deal with the issues seriously, which he's been doing. A resolution would be good, but we don't expect a quick resolution at this point.”

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