SHANGHAI: US President Donald Trump said he thinks there will be “a great deal” with China on trade, but warned that he has billions of dollars worth of new tariffs ready to go if a deal isn’t possible.
“I think that we will make a great deal with China and it has to be great, because they’ve drained our country,” Trump told FOX News Channel’s The Ingraham Angle on Monday.
Trump said in the interview he would like to make a deal now, but that China was not ready. He did not elaborate.
Bloomberg news reported on Monday that Washington was preparing to announce tariffs on all remaining Chinese imports by early December if talks next month between Trump and his counterpart Xi Jinping fail to ease the trade war.
The United States has already imposed tariffs on $250 billion (Dh918 billion) worth of Chinese goods, and China has responded with retaliatory duties on $110 billion worth of US goods.
“And I have $267 billion waiting to go if we can’t make a deal,” Trump said.
Trump has long threatened to impose tariffs on all remaining Chinese imports into the United States if Beijing fails to meet US demands for sweeping changes to Chinese trade, technology transfer and industrial subsidy policies.
