U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer said Friday that the U.S. formally began placing an additional $300 billion worth of Chinese goods under 25% tariffs.
That is less than the $325 billion that President Trump had previously announced.
“Earlier today, at the direction of the President, the United States increased the level of tariffs from 10 percent to 25 percent on approximately $200 billion worth of Chinese imports. The President also ordered us to begin the process of raising tariffs on essentially all remaining imports from China, which are valued at approximately $300 billion,” Lighthizer said.
The increased taxes on imported goods, which make Chinese products more expensive for American consumers and businesses, are intended to pressure China to reaffirm pledges it made previously in trade talks with the U.S. The Trump administration has accused China of attempting to renege on them. China has said it will retaliate for the U.S. tariff hikes, without giving any specific details.
Lighthizer and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin met Thursday and Friday in Washington D.C. with China’s top negotiator, Vice Premier Liu He in an attempt to strike a last-minute deal to avoid the tariff increase. The talks failed to produce a deal, but both sides said they planned to hold future negotiations.
Nevertheless both sides indicated that the talks had not collapsed. The president said Friday that the negotiations will continue into the future. “In the meantime, the United States has imposed Tariffs on China, which may or may not be removed depending on what happens with respect to future negotiations!” he tweeted.
Trump first announced the new tariffs on Sunday, along with the increases in the existing ones. He tweeted: “The 10% will go up to 25% on Friday. 325 Billions Dollars….of additional goods sent to us by China remain untaxed, but will be shortly, at a rate of 25%.”
It was unclear why the dollar amount of goods subject to the new tariffs declined by $25 billion on Friday.
