J.P. Morgan CEO Jamie Dimon said Wednesday he thinks the U.S. and China will reach an interim agreement before the March 2 deadline to end their tariff cease-fire.
"I think they'll get enough done – kind of agreements in principle" to extend the deadline, Dimon said on CNBC's "Squawk Box" at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. "If you have tariffs put in place on March 1, that would be bad for the global economy."
Trade negotiations between Washington and Beijing have stretched for months amid their tit-for-tat trade war. Both countries have slapped tariffs on billions of dollars worth of each others' goods. The White House put tariffs of 10 percent on $200 billion of Chinese products in September and at the time threatened to increase the levy to 25 percent by the start of 2019.
Following President Donald Trump's meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping in Argentina on Dec. 1, the two sides agreed to halt additional tariffs as they try to reach an agreement by March 2.
Should Beijing and Washington fail to agree on a permanent solution, Trump has said he will reinforce punitive tariffs on roughly half of all Chinese exports to the United States. Dimon is also optimistic that the two nations will reach a permanent trade deal after working out differences over the enforcement of intellectual property rights and other contentious issues.
"I think what you need to do is get the strategic relation mostly around trade right. And fair. And not just for us, but for the Europeans, for the Japanese," Dimon added. "I think both parties want to do that."
The bank chief's comments from Davos came one day after a source familiar with the Trump administration's trade negotiations told CNBC that a trade planning meeting with Chinese vice ministers had been canceled due to outstanding disagreements between the parties.
White House economic advisor Larry Kudlow later denied that any official meeting had been canceled, telling CNBC on Tuesday that no intermediate meetings had been scheduled other than the visit by Vice Premier Liu He next week.
Dimon also told CNBC on Wednesday that the U.S. economy could hit a "slowdown or recession."
