Donald Trump will urge Latin America to spurn China in favour of the US in trade, official says
At the Summit of the Americas next week in Peru, Trump will argue that China’s policies have not been productive for the hemisphere
US President Donald Trump, engaged in an escalating confrontation with Beijing over trade, will urge Latin American leaders next week to work with the United States – not China – on trade, a senior US official said on Thursday.
Trump’s trip to Lima, Peru, for the Summit of the Americas has been prefaced by aggressive moves on trade and immigration.
In a telephone briefing with reporters in advance of the trip, the US official, who declined to be named, said that China’s trade policies had “not been productive for the hemisphere and that the United States should remain the partner of choice” for Latin American countries.
Just 11 hours after the Trump administration proposed 25 per cent tariffs on some 1,300 Chinese industrial, technology, transport and medical products, China shot back with a list of similar duties on American imports including soybeans, planes, cars, beef and chemicals.
The dispute has roiled financial markets and angered US lawmakers in agricultural states who worry about the economic impact of retaliatory tariffs on American soybeans and other crops.
Trump has also been sparring with Mexico and Canada on an overhaul of the North American Free Trade Agreement.