Trump ready to ratchet up China trade war with more tariffs — Report

WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump is prepared to quickly ramp up a trade war with China and has told aides he is ready to impose tariffs on US$200 billion more in Chinese imports as soon as a public comment period on the plan ends next week, Bloomberg News reported.

The White House declined comment on the Bloomberg report, which cited six unidentified sources, and deflated markets. The S&P hit session lows, and the US dollar, Chinese yuan and US Treasury yields also fell.

Trump has credited his electoral success to his hard line on trade, which he has argued hurts US workers and favours foreign competitors. Washington is demanding Beijing improve market access and intellectual property protections for US companies, cut industrial subsidies and slash a US$ 375 billion trade gap.

The world’s two largest economies have already applied tariffs to US$50 billion of each other’s goods in a tit- for- tat trade war. Talks aimed at easing tensions ended last week without major breakthroughs.

The new proposed 25 per cent tariffs would affect consumer products including home building supplies, technology products, bicycles and apparel.

A public comment period on the proposal is set to end on September 6, and Trump plans to impose the tariffs after that deadline, Bloomberg said. — Reuters