US President Donald Trump said he would prefer not to have to impose tariffs on China, his latest dovish remark toward the world’s second-biggest economy even as he continues to threaten sweeping action.
Asked if he could stop the Chinese president from taking Taiwan and reach a trade agreement, Trump told Fox News host Sean Hannity that the US had a “very big power over China, and that’s tariffs, and they don’t want them.”
“And I’d rather not have to use it. But it’s a tremendous power over China,” he said in the interview that aired on Thursday.
Photo: AFP
Trump has wielded tariffs as a frequent threat against friends and adversaries, while promising voters that the additional revenue would help fund his domestic priorities.
On his second day in office, he threatened to put 10 percent tariffs on China as soon as Saturday next week for allowing fentanyl to “pour” into the US.
Markets have taken it as a positive sign that Trump stopped short of imposing tariffs on China in his first days in office, and his recent threats were softer than those issued last year. During his presidential campaign, the Republican floated additional levies on China of about 60 percent.
The yuan extended gains and rose 0.6 percent in both onshore and offshore markets after Trump’s latest comments. Chinese stocks also extended gains, with the benchmark CSI 300 Index ending the day up 0.8 percent.
In Beijing, Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokeswoman Mao Ning (毛寧) yesterday said there were “huge common interests” between the US and China.
“The two sides should step up dialogue and consultation,” she said at a regular press briefing.
EUROPEAN TARGETS: The planned Munich center would support TSMC’s European customers to design high-performance, energy-efficient chips, an executive said Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the world’s largest contract chipmaker, yesterday said that it plans to launch a new research-and-development (R&D) center in Munich, Germany, next quarter to assist customers with chip design. TSMC Europe president Paul de Bot made the announcement during a technology symposium in Amsterdam on Tuesday, the chipmaker said. The new Munich center would be the firm’s first chip designing center in Europe, it said. The chipmaker has set up a major R&D center at its base of operations in Hsinchu and plans to create a new one in the US to provide services for major US customers,
The Ministry of Transportation and Communications yesterday said that it would redesign the written portion of the driver’s license exam to make it more rigorous. “We hope that the exam can assess drivers’ understanding of traffic rules, particularly those who take the driver’s license test for the first time. In the past, drivers only needed to cram a book of test questions to pass the written exam,” Minister of Transportation and Communications Chen Shih-kai (陳世凱) told a news conference at the Taoyuan Motor Vehicle Office. “In the future, they would not be able to pass the test unless they study traffic regulations
‘A SURVIVAL QUESTION’: US officials have been urging the opposition KMT and TPP not to block defense spending, especially the special defense budget, an official said The US plans to ramp up weapons sales to Taiwan to a level exceeding US President Donald Trump’s first term as part of an effort to deter China as it intensifies military pressure on the nation, two US officials said on condition of anonymity. If US arms sales do accelerate, it could ease worries about the extent of Trump’s commitment to Taiwan. It would also add new friction to the tense US-China relationship. The officials said they expect US approvals for weapons sales to Taiwan over the next four years to surpass those in Trump’s first term, with one of them saying
‘COMING MENACINGLY’: The CDC advised wearing a mask when visiting hospitals or long-term care centers, on public transportation and in crowded indoor venues Hospital visits for COVID-19 last week increased by 113 percent to 41,402, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) said yesterday, as it encouraged people to wear a mask in three public settings to prevent infection. CDC Epidemic Intelligence Center Deputy Director Lee Chia-lin (李佳琳) said weekly hospital visits for COVID-19 have been increasing for seven consecutive weeks, and 102 severe COVID-19 cases and 19 deaths were confirmed last week, both the highest weekly numbers this year. CDC physician Lee Tsung-han (李宗翰) said the youngest person hospitalized due to the disease this year was reported last week, a one-month-old baby, who does not
RSS