China remains silent as Trump repeats threat to hike tariffs if trade war deal not reached soon
- Chinese officials and state media have been silent on threats from US president to raise tariffs on Chinese goods if ‘phase one’ trade deal not settled soon
- Senior White House officials still optimistic a deal can be reached to end 17-month tariff war
Chinese officials and state-run media were silent this week even after US President Donald Trump threatened for the second time in a week to “raise the tariffs even higher” on Chinese imports if a trade deal cannot be reached, casting further uncertainty on the “phase one” trade agreement he announced in October.
The silence has contrasted with American officials who have been vocal in recent days on the outlook for completion of the “phase one” trade deal announced by the president more than a month ago.
“China is going to have to make a deal that I like. If they don’t, that’s it,” Trump told reporters on Tuesday. “If we don’t make a deal with China, I’ll just raise the tariffs even higher.”
China is going to have to make a deal that I like ... If we don’t make a deal with China, I’ll just raise the tariffs even higher
US Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross was more measured in his comments, saying that the White House remains “optimistic” that an agreement can be reached.
Ross told the Fox Business Network on Tuesday that the success of a phase one deal depended on “fine-tuning” the agreement’s details, though he reiterated Trump’s stance that the US would be fine if a deal could not be struck because the tariff war has so far had limited impact on the economy.
“I think they [Chinese] realised that he means what he says and he says what he means,” Ross said. “The question is getting into details and getting into the fine-tuning because that’s the only way you really find out whether you have a deal or you don’t.”