Donald Trump tweets: No need to rush to a trade deal with China
- US president takes to Twitter after raising tariffs on Chinese products
- Tells farmers revenue will be used to buy their products for humanitarian aid
United States President Donald Trump has said there is “no need to rush” to reach a trade deal with China because of the “massive payments” being generated from the US tariffs on Chinese products.
In a series of tweets on Friday, Trump refuted concerns that the collapsed trade talks would affect US agriculture, suggesting the government would use more than US$100 billion in tariff revenue to buy from its own farmers and ship the products to “poor and starving countries in the form of humanitarian assistance”.
“Talks with China continue in a very congenial manner – there is absolutely no need to rush,” he tweeted, saying that “massive payments” were going directly to the US Treasury.
“In the meantime we will continue to negotiate with China in the hopes that they do not again try to redo deal!”
The US increased tariffs from 10 per cent to 25 per cent on US$200 billion of Chinese imports on Friday, a day after Chinese Vice-Premier Liu He arrived in Washington for talks to end the trade war.
China almost instantly vowed to implement the “necessary countermeasures” in response to the decision, reiterating its tough stance in the trade war.
“China deeply regrets that the US has decided to increase the tariffs from 10 per cent to 25 per cent on US$200 billion worth of China goods exported to the United States,” the Ministry of Commerce said in a statement released minutes after the new US tariff level came into effect.
Liu had a working dinner with US Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer and US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin on Thursday, after which Trump met his two negotiators. The sides “agreed to continue discussions tomorrow morning”, the White House said in a statement.
Speaking to reporters as Liu arrived in Washington, Trump suggested his order to raise tariffs on US$200 billion of imports from China had helped accelerate the negotiation process.
Talks between the two delegations resumed at Lighthizer’s USTR headquarters at around 10:00am.
