The Trump administration plans to propose a 25 percent tariff on $200 billion in Chinese imports and an announcement could come as early as Wednesday, according to a source.
Donald Trump might be about to heat up his trade spat with Beijing.
(SOUNDBITE) (English) U.S. PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP SAYING:
“It’s the talk of the world.”
A source tells Reuters: the administration plans to bump up proposed tariffs from an initial 10 percent to 25 percent on 200 billion dollars of imported Chinese goods.
That could be announced as early as Wednesday(August 1).
And while the tariffs won’t be imposed until after a period of public comment, raising them could quickly escalate the trade dispute.
Investors fear that could hit global growth and prominent U.S. business groups have condemned Trump’s aggressive stance.
But the U.S. president isn’t backing down.
(SOUNDBITE) (English) U.S. PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP SAYING:
“Everyone that greets me says Hello Mr. President, congratulations on what you’ve done for the economy.”
In early July, the U.S. government imposed 25 percent tariffs on an initial 34 billion dollars of Chinese imports.
Beijing retaliated with matching tariffs on the same amount of U.S. exports to China.
Now, Washington might also impose tariffs on an extra 16 billion dollars of goods in the next few weeks and Trump has warned he might go even further and ultimately put them over half a billion dollars of goods, roughly the total amount of U.S. imports from China last year.
“Now thanks to our tariffs our steel workers are back on the job, American steel mills are back open for business.”
There’s been no immediate reaction from the Chinese government.
In July, it accused the U.S. of bullying and warned it would hit back.
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