Trump threatens more tariffs
US President issues threat if trade talks fail, says China's 'economy is going down the tubes'
WASHINGTON : US President Donald Trump said yesterday he would impose additional tariffs on China if he did not reach a trade deal with Chinese leader Xi Jinping.
"I would do additional tariffs, very substantial additional tariffs, if that doesn't work, if we don't make a deal," he said in an interview with Fox Business Network.
He left open the possibility that the two leaders could make a deal to avert further tariffs at the G20 summit in Japan this weekend.
China and the United States have been embroiled in trade tensions marked by tit-for-tat tariffs and talks between the two countries broke down in May.
Mr Trump said in the interview China knows what the US needs to have for a trade deal to go through.He also said that China wants the deal because its economy is weakening.
"China's economy is going down the tubes - they want to make a deal."
Mr Trump said if Washington was unable to reach a trade deal with Beijing, his plan was to reduce business with China.
Mr Trump has hit US$200 billion (S$270 billion) of Chinese imports with levies.
He has threatened to target an additional US$300 billion if Beijing does not agree to US demands for protection of intellectual property and other reforms to a trading system that Mr Trump says gives China huge unfair advantages.
Asked about companies relocating production from China to Vietnam, he said Vietnam treated the United States even worse than China.
"A lot of companies are moving to Vietnam, but Vietnam takes advantage of us even worse than China. It's almost the single worst abuser of everybody."
He also slammed the European Union (EU), saying it was out of line bringing lawsuits against US technology companies like Facebook and Alphabet Inc's Google.
Mr Trump said legal action against those firms should be the purview of the United States.
"She hates the United States perhaps worse than any person I've ever met," Mr Trump said, in an apparent reference to EU competition commissioner Margrethe Vestager.
"What she does to our country. She's suing all our companies. We should be suing Google and Facebook, and all that, which perhaps we will.
"They're suing Apple for billions of dollars. They're suing everybody. They make it almost impossible to do two-way business," Mr Trump said, reprising his frequent complaint that Europe treats the United States worse than China when it comes to trade.
He also reiterated his view that social media companies were discriminating against conservatives.
"They should be sued," he said.
Turning to Iran, he said any war between the United States and Iran would be swift, although he reiterated his desire to avoid a military confrontation even as he blasted Teheran's leaders.
Mr Trump said: "I hope we don't, but we're in a very strong position if something should happen.
"I'm not talking boots on the ground ... I'm just saying if something would happen, it wouldn't last very long." - REUTERS
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