US President Donald Trump yesterday threatened to hit China with tariffs on “at least” another US$300 billion of Chinese goods, but said he thought both China and Mexico wanted to make deals in their trade disputes with the US.
Tensions between the world’s two largest economies have risen sharply since talks aimed at ending a festering trade dispute broke down early last month.
While Trump yesterday said that talks with China were ongoing, no face-to-face meetings have been held since May 10, the day he sharply increased tariffs on a US$200 billion list of Chinese goods to 25 percent, prompting Beijing to retaliate.
Photo: AFP
“Our talks with China, a lot of interesting things are happening. We’ll see what happens... I could go up another at least US$300 billion and I’ll do that at the right time,” Trump told reporters, without specifying which goods could be impacted.
“But I think China wants to make a deal and I think Mexico wants to make a deal badly,” said Trump before boarding Air Force One at the airport in Shannon, Ireland, on his way to France for D-Day commemorations.
In Beijing, the Chinese Ministry of Commerce struck a defiant tone.
“If the United States willfully decides to escalate tensions, we’ll fight to the end,” ministry spokesman Gao Feng (高峰) told a regular news briefing.
“China does not want to fight a trade war, but also is not afraid of one. If the United States willfully decides to escalate trade tensions, we’ll adopt necessary countermeasures and resolutely safeguard the interests of China and its people,” he said.
The ministry also issued a report on how the US has benefited from years of economic and trade cooperation with China, saying US claims that China has taken advantage in bilateral trade were groundless.
“Since the new US administration took office, it has disregarded the mutually beneficial and win-win nature of China-US economic and trade cooperation, and has advocated the theory that the United States has ‘lost out’ to China on trade,” the ministry report said. “It has also taken the trade deficit issue as an excuse to provoke economic and trade frictions.”
Adding to concerns China might target US companies in the trade dispute, the ministry last week said that it was drafting a list of “unreliable entities” that have harmed Chinese companies’ interests.
Gao said the list did not target specific industries, companies or individuals, and details would be disclosed soon.
Companies that abide by Chinese laws and market rules had nothing to worry about, he added.
US Secretary of the Treasury Steven Mnuchin is scheduled to meet People’s Bank of China Governor Yi Gang (易綱) this weekend at a gathering of G20 finance leaders in Japan, the first face-to-face discussion between key negotiators in nearly a month.
Mexican and US officials were also scheduled yesterday to resume their talks in Washington aimed at averting an imposition of tariffs on Mexican goods.
Trump yesterday said that Mexico had made progress in the talks, but needed to do more.
He reiterated that 5 percent tariffs on all Mexico’s exports to the US due to start on Monday would go ahead if progress was not made.
The tariffs can rise to as much as 25 percent later in the year.
“Mexico was in yesterday. They’re coming back this morning... I think a lot of progress was made yesterday, but we need to make a lot of progress,” Trump said.
“They have to step up and they have to step up to the plate — and perhaps they will,” he said.
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