US poised to extend tariffs to all Chinese imports if Trump-Xi meeting fails, hitting another US$260 billion in products
- The tariffs would be announced in December and go into effect around the Lunar New Year in February, sources say
- Donald Trump and Xi Jinping are set to meet on the sidelines of a Group of 20 summit in Buenos Aires in November
The US is preparing to announce by early December tariffs on all remaining Chinese imports if talks next month between presidents Donald Trump and Xi Jinping fail to ease the trade war, three people familiar with the matter said.
An early-December announcement of a new product list would mean the effective date – after a 60-day public comment period – may coincide with China’s Lunar New Year holiday in early February. The list would apply to the imports that aren’t already covered by previous rounds of tariffs – which may be US$257 billion using last year’s import figures, according to two of the people.
US officials are preparing for such a scenario in case a planned Trump-Xi meeting yields no progress on the sidelines of a Group of 20 summit in Buenos Aires in November, according to two of the people, who declined to be identified to discuss internal deliberations. They cautioned that final decisions had not been made.
The move indicates that the Trump administration remains willing to escalate its trade war with China even as companies complain about the rising costs of tariffs and financial markets continue to be nervous about the global economic fallout.
Stocks in the US have erased 2018 gains partly on concern about an escalating trade war between the world’s two largest economies.