Beijing threatens to respond to US after Donald Trump repeats plan to keep trade war tariffs in place
- US president accuses Beijing of attempting to negotiate with his political opponents to avoid having to make concessions
- Trump tweets a day before Chinese Vice-Premier Liu He is to arrive in Washington for trade talks
China said it would have no choice but to respond to any further escalation of the trade war with the US, following the latest comments by US President Donald Trump that he intends to maintain punitive tariffs on Chinese imports.
Taking to Twitter on Wednesday morning, Trump reiterated his intention to keep the tariffs and accused Beijing of attempting to stall talks in hopes that it can negotiate a trade deal with a future Democratic administration.
Just a day before Chinese Vice-Premier Liu He is scheduled to arrive in Washington for an 11th round of talks, Trump wrote that the Chinese delegation hoped “they will be able to ‘negotiate’ with [Democratic presidential candidate] Joe Biden or one of the very weak Democrats, and thereby continue to ripoff the United States (US$500 billion a year) for years to come”.
“Guess what, that’s not going to happen!” Trump added.
Trump tweeted on Sunday that he intended to raise tariffs on US$200 billion worth of Chinese goods from 10 to 25 per cent.
That change will take effect on Friday, according to a special filing announced on Wednesday in the US government’s Federal Register.