ECONOMY Trump says China could face additional tariffs

US President Donald Trump has hinted at the possibility of a second round of tariffs on China, following the duties the US imposed on metal and other imports from the country earlier this year.

During an interview on Sunday with CBS News programme 60 Minutes, Mr Trump said that more tariffs “might” be forthcoming.

“I want them [China] to negotiate a fair deal with us. I want them to open their markets like our markets are open,” he said.

The US has imposed three rounds of tariffs on Chinese imports totalling $250 billion, and China has responded by imposing duties on some US products.

Mr Trump told CBS he did not want to tip the Chinese economy into a recession, and compared the country’s stock market losses since the metal tariffs to those in 1929, when the Great Depression affected the United States.

The Shanghai Composite fell by as much as 6 per cent last Thursday amid concerns over increasing trade tensions and higher US borrowing rates.

Chinese state-owned newspaper Global Times wrote in an editorial last week that China’s stock market “has a limited impact on the whole Chinese economy, and the Chinese economy has withstood this round of impacts”.

The country’s customs agency said that foreign trade growth may slow in the fourth quarter compared to the same period last year. Meanwhile, China’s central bank governor Yi Gang sought to reassure markets during an International Monetary Fund meeting in Bali on Sunday.

“China has had plenty of room for adjustment in interest rates and reserves ratio to ward off any negative impact from trade tensions with the US,” he said.