Trump: ‘Highly Unlikely’ to Stop Raising China Tariffs

On Monday, U.S. President Donald Trump vowed to go ahead with a tariff hike from 10 to 25 percent on US$200 billion of Chinese imports.

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Trump threatened he would hit the rest of China’s imports to the US with tariffs, if talks with China did not prosper, according to the BBC. Something which the president himself believes is “unlikely to happen.”

The negotiation-oriented China side is “conservatively optimistic” in their expectations but open to talk in order to stop the trade war started at Trump’s behest, “The main issue is how to settle down the trade war,” a Chinese official told reporters.

The U.S. president’s negotiation style with China is to impose unilaterally conceived solutions and hope that the Asian Giant will acquiesce, “The only deal would be China has to open up their country to competition from the United States.”

"If we don't make a deal, then I'm going to put the $267bn additional on," Trump stated. A move which would represent a tariff increase between 10 to 25 percent on the indicated amount, according to the Wall Street Journal.  

Some of the Chinese export items hit by the tariffs include iPhones and laptops.

China has told the White House to hold off on imposing the tariff which is supposed to go into force on Jan. 1.

These remarks come days prior to the meeting of presidents Xi Jinping and Donald Trump at the G-20, in Argentina, where both countries may reach some form of resolution to the trade issue.