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<\/a><\/p>\nChina has vowed to retaliate for the latest US tariffs with new import taxes on $60 billion in American products. If that happens, the president said, he would immediately begin the process of approving tariffs on a further $267 billion in Chinese imports \u2013 effectively taxing everything Americans buy from China.<\/p>\n
\u201c… if China takes retaliatory action against our farmers or other industries, we will immediately pursue phase three, which is tariffs on approximately USD 267 billion of additional imports,\u201d Trump said in a strong warning to China.<\/p>\n
The US action came even as Chinese officials weighed an invitation to visit Washington for new talks aimed at ending the months-old dispute. \u201cThe Trump administration is yet again sending a perplexing mixed message by inviting Chinese officials for negotiations and then imposing additional tariffs in the run-up to the talks,\u201d said media reports quoting Eswar Prasad, former head of the International Monetary Fund’s China division. \u201cIt is difficult to see what the administration’s vision of an end game might be other than total capitulation by China to all US demands.\u201d<\/p>\n
Trump said his administration is taking this action as a result of the Section 301 process that the USTR has been pursuing for more than 12 months. US Trade Representatives (USTR) released a list of such items.<\/p>\n
After a thorough study, the USTR concluded that China is engaged in numerous unfair policies and practices relating to US technology and intellectual property \u2013 such as forcing United States companies to transfer technology to Chinese counterparts, he said.<\/p>\n
These practices plainly constitute a grave threat to the long-term health and prosperity of the US economy, he added.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor months, we have urged China to change these unfair practices, and give fair and reciprocal treatment to American companies. We have been very clear about the type of changes that need to be made, and we have given China every opportunity to treat us more fairly,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut, so far, China has been unwilling to change its practices,\u201d he said. To counter China’s unfair practices, he had announced on June 15 that the US would impose tariffs of 25 percent on USD 50 billion worth of Chinese imports.<\/p>\n
\u201cChina, however, still refuses to change its practices \u2013 and indeed recently imposed new tariffs in an effort to hurt the United States economy,\u201d Trump said.<\/p>\n
China, he said, has had many opportunities to fully address US concerns. \u201cI urge China’s leaders to take swift action to end their country’s unfair trade practices. Hopefully, this trade situation will be resolved, in the end, by myself and President Xi of China, for whom I have great respect and affection,\u201d Trump said.<\/p>\n
Later a senior administration official told reporters that China has had many opportunities to change those practices and, in fact, the statute says that trade representatives shall take all appropriate and feasible action in an effort to obtain the elimination of those practices.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo we’ve negotiated and negotiated and negotiated and given them chance after chance after chance… The administration has imposed tariffs on roughly USD 50 billion worth of Chinese imports already, in an effort to encourage China to alter its behaviour,\u201d the official said.<\/p>\n
By imposing such a tariff, the official said, the US is not trying to constrain China’s growth.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have no problem with China trying to grow its economy, trying to lift its people out of poverty, that’s a good thing. But, in doing so, they can’t take actions that deliberately discriminate against other countries; actions that hurt American workers. And they can’t take actions that entirely flout the rules of the international trading system,\u201d the official said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is an effort to work with China and say, it’s time that you address these unfair trading practices that we have identified, that others have identified, and which have harmed the entire global trading system,\u201d the official asserted.<\/p>\n
At the same time, the official said, the US remains open to negotiations. \u201cWe don’t have anything to announce to you today, in terms of any of the logistics of that, but, as the President has said, we are open to that and we hope that China will come to the table and address the concerns that we have raised,\u201d the official said.<\/p>\n
House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Kevin Brady said Trump is clearly increasing the pressure on China to come to the table and begin a new trading relationship that is fairer to the American farmers, workers and businesses.<\/p>\n