President Trump said Wednesday that he may leave tariffs on Chinese products in place for a long time rather than removing them even if his administration strikes a new trade deal with Beijing.
“We’re not talking about removing them [the tariffs],” Trump told reporters on the White House lawn. “We’re talking about leaving them, and for a substantial period of time. Because we have to make sure that if we do the deal with China, that China lives by the deal.”
He added that negotiations were going “nicely.”
Stocks dropped immediately following his comments.
The comments come as the U.S. is trying to wrap up a trade deal with China that could roll back the tariffs. The administration has hit China with tariffs of 10 percent to 25 percent on $250 billion worth of goods, and has threatened to raise them further if a deal cannot be reached.
The talks have been snagged over issues of whether the Trump administration will lift trade sanctions before it has definitive confirmation that China has moved first to address concerns and whether Beijing will agree to allow the administration to immediately apply tariffs if it is deemed in violation of the terms of the deal.
U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin will travel to Beijing next week to talk to their counterpart, Chinese Vice Premier Liu He. Follow up talks will be held in Washington, D.C. the week after. The White House is trying to set up final talks between Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping, but those talks were tentatively pushed back into April until the underlying details are resolved.
