White House press secretary Sarah Sanders said Wednesday that it was President Trump’s decision to push once more for the imposition of tariffs on Chinese goods, even though Trump a month earlier removed the threat of tariffs and said the U.S. and China would negotiate.
“The president ultimately makes the decisions on trade, and when he does, we announce them,” Sanders told reporters. “And that’s exactly what’s taking place in this process.”
Trump cooled trade tensions in late April by saying he would negotiate with China before imposing tariffs. But this week, Trump seemed to reverse course by saying new tariffs would be imposed on $50 billion worth of Chinese goods.
The tariff move, which was accompanied by new restrictions on Chinese investment in the U.S., was meant to retaliate against China’s ongoing failure to enforce intellectual property rights and its requirement that companies invest in China as a condition of doing business there.
When pressed on the apparent decision to reverse course, Sanders said the White House never said how long it would try negotiating with China.
“I didn’t say it was on hold indefinitely,” Sanders said.
She also said the decision wouldn’t hurt the ability of the Trump administration to negotiate with China on other issues, like North Korea.
“The president continues to have a good relationship with President Xi, but what the president’s concerned about is making sure he stops the unfair trade practices that China’s engaged in for decades,” she said. “Stopping the intellectual property theft that China has been engaged in, and making sure that we no longer allow China to play on a different playing field than the rest of us.”
“He’s not going to allow American workers to be taken advantage of,” Sanders added. “He’s going to call that out and he’s going to step up and make those changes.”
The White House said it would publish a final list of Chinese goods affected by the proposed 25 percent tariff on June 15.
