President Trump said Thursday that if the U.S. cannot reach a deal with Beijing to end their current trade standoff, then additional tariffs on Chinese goods would be an “excellent” alternative.
Trump has threatened to slap 25% tariffs on virtually all Chinese goods if a deal isn’t reached, a threat the administration has said will become a reality at midnight Thursday.
“We were getting very close to a deal. Then they started to renegotiate the deal. We cannot have that,” Trump told reporters at a White House event. He said that that if things fell apart with Beijing then taking in revenue from tariffs was just as appealing to him.
“Our alternative is an excellent one. It is an alternative I have spoken about for years. We’ll take in well over $100 billion a year,” he said.
[Related: China says problem is Trump demanding trade deal be in writing]
The president noted that Chinese Vice Premier Liu He is scheduled to arrive in Washington D.C. later Thursday to continue trade negotiations. The president also said that he’d received a “beautiful” letter from Chinese President Xi Jinping and that he’ll “probably” talk on the phone with him in the near-future, so he remained optimistic that a deal could be reached.
“I think it will be a very strong day but we’ll see,” he said. “It was their idea to come back, but we have two great alternatives.”
Trump and his advisers have accused China in recent days of trying to walk back concessions it had agreed to previously in trade negotiations. The president has threatened to raise the existing tariffs on $250 billion worth of Chinese goods to 25% across the board, up from 10% in most cases and add 25% tariffs to an additional $325 billion in additional goods, if China doesn’t stick to the earlier agreement.
China, which has placed tariffs on $130 billion worth of U.S. goods, has threatened further unspecified retaliation if the U.S. raises the tariffs.
