Donald Trump vows to pursue aggressive trade action in ‘coming weeks’ against China
Comments by the US president come just ahead of Washington’s planned imposition of punitive tariffs on US$50 billion in imports
US President Donald Trump has pledged to hit China with aggressive trade action “in the coming weeks”, signalling that he will not back away from a plan to institute punitive tariffs on goods from America’s largest trading partner.
“China could be a little bit upset about trade because we are very strongly clamping down,” Trump told Fox News’s Bret Baier in an interview to be aired on Wednesday, according to Bloomberg. The interview was conducted aboard Air Force One, during Trump’s flight from Singapore, after he met with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un.
Trump spoke just days ahead of a deadline he set last month about his administration’s imposition of a 25 per cent punitive tariff on US$50 billion worth of annual imports from China, part of an effort to force Beijing to lower restrictions on US companies and exporters to the country’s markets.
The final list of goods to be targeted is expected to be announced on Friday.
“You will see over the next couple of weeks,” Bloomberg quoted Trump as saying. “They understand what we are doing.”
Trump has shown little interest in softening his approach in an effort to draw down long-standing trade deficits with the US’s largest trading partners.