Donald Trump Raises China Tariffs, Beijing Slams Move

Washington/Beijing: The development comes after the latest round of talks led by US Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin with Chinese delegation headed by Vice Premier Liu He in Shanghai showed little sign of a breakthrough.

The duty is likely target a wide range of goods, from smartphones to clothing. The move jolted financial markets. On Wall Street, the Dow Jones share index closed down 1.1 per cemt, and Asia markets were sharply lower on Friday. Oil prices also tumbled, media reports said.

“Our representatives have just returned from China where they had constructive talks having to do with a future Trade Deal. We thought we had a deal with China three months ago, but sadly, China decided to re-negotiate the deal prior to signing,” Trump tweeted on Thursday. He took aim at China for not honouring promises to buy more US agricultural products at this week’s negotiations. He also attacked Chinese President Xi Jinping for failing to do more to stem sales of the synthetic opioid fentanyl.

“Trade talks are continuing, and during the talks the US will start, on September 1, putting a small additional tariff of 10 per cent on the remaining $300 billion of goods and products coming from China into our country. This does not include the $250 billion already tariffed at 25 per cent.”

Trump also said that tariffs could be lifted further in stages to more than 25 per cent. Reacting to the move, China’s Foreign Minister Wang Yi said that the decision won’t solve the ongoing trade spat between the two of the world’s largest economies.

“Adding tariffs is definitely not a constructive way to resolve economic and trade frictions, it’s not the correct way,” Wang said on the sidelines of an Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) meeting in the Thai capital, according to Efe news. China’s Commerce Ministry spokesperson said that Trump’s proposal “seriously violated the consensus” reached with Xi at the G20 in Osaka and “was not conducive to solving the problem”. (IANS)

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