Tariffs forcing firms to move out of China: Trump
WASHINGTONUS President Donald Trump said his tariffs on Chinese goods are causing companies to move production out of China to Vietnam and other countries in Asia, and added that any agreement with China cannot be a "50-50" deal.
In an interview with Fox News Channel recorded last week and aired on Sunday night, Mr Trump said the US and China "had a very strong deal, we had a good deal, and they changed it. And I said that's okay, we're going to tariff their products".
No further trade talks between top Chinese and US trade negotiators have been scheduled since the last round ended on May 10 - the day Mr Trump raised the tariff rate on US$200 billion (S$275 billion) worth of Chinese products from 10 per cent to 25 per cent.
Mr Trump took the step after China soured the negotiations by seeking major changes to a deal that US officials said had been largely agreed.
Since then, China has struck a sterner tone in its rhetoric, suggesting that a resumption of talks aimed at ending the 10-month trade war between the world's two largest economies was unlikely to happen soon.
Mr Trump, who said the interview with Fox News host Steve Hilton had taken place two days after he raised the tariffs, said he would be happy to simply keep tariffs on Chinese products, because the US would be taking in US$100 billion or more in tariffs.
But he added that he believed that China would eventually make a deal with the US "because they are getting killed with the tariffs; China's getting totally killed".
But Mr Trump said that he had told Chinese President Xi Jinping before the most recent rounds of talks that any deal could not be "50-50" between the two countries and had to be more in favour of the US because of past trade practices by China.
INVESTIGATED
Mr Trump also said that Democratic presidential candidate and former US vice-president Joe Biden should be investigated over a conservative author's allegation that Mr Biden's son Hunter took advantage of his father's position to sign a lucrative business deal with state-controlled Bank of China.
The allegation was made in the 2018 book Secret Empires by Peter Schweizer, senior editor-at-large at the far-right Breitbart News.
Asked if this should be investigated, Mr Trump said: "A hundred per cent. It's a disgrace and then (Joe Biden) says China's not a competitor of ours.
"China is a massive competitor of ours. They want to take over the world."
- REUTERS
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