Donald Trump says he hasn’t made a decision on whether to subject all Chinese imports to US tariffs
- Trump commented shortly before his trade office issued more details about potential new duties
- The US president also confirmed that he would meet his counterpart, Xi Jinping, during the G20 meetings in Japan at the end of June
US President Donald Trump said on Monday that he had not decided whether to follow through with threats to impose tariffs on all imports coming from China, as his trade chiefs issued a full list of commodities that would be subject to the new duties.
“I haven’t made that decision yet,” Trump said. “We have the right to do another 325 billion at 25 per cent. That is a tremendous amount of money that would come into our country.”
Though Trump has repeatedly used the figure US$325 billion, the Office of the US Trade Representative (USTR) estimates that the value of all remaining imports from China is closer to US$300 billion.
Trump’s comments came as the USTR released details about the public comment period that will precede any further tariff action, during which companies are invited to testify and seek exclusions from the taxes.
The final deadline for testimonies and rebuttals will land in late June, around the same time that Trump is expected to meet his Chinese counterpart, President Xi Jinping, during the G20 summit in Japan – a face-to-face that Trump confirmed on Monday.
“That’ll be, I think, probably a very fruitful meeting,” he said, speaking to reporters at the White House after a meeting with Hungarian prime minister Viktor Orban.