‘Until A Trade Deal, We Will Tax Them’: Unhappy With Pace Of Talks, Trump Announces Higher Tariffs Against China

United States (US) President Donald Trump said on Thursday (1 August) that he would increase the tariff on China if Xi fails to strike a trade deal with the country soon, reports Livemint.

US would further impose 10 per cent tariff on $300 billion of Chinese imports from September, Trump announced in a series of tweets after officials briefed him about a lack of progress in talks with China in Shanghai this week.

"When my people came home, they said, 'We're talking. We have another meeting in early September.' I said, 'That's fine, but until such time as there's a deal, we'll be taxing them," Trump told reporters. "I think President Xi ... wants to make a deal, but frankly, he's not going fast enough," he added.

The statement marks an abrupt end to the temporary truce in US-China trade war secured after the G-20 meet. The move will extend the tariff to almost all Chinese imports in US. Trump also said that he could increase the tariff beyond the already imposed 25 percent levy on $250 billion of imports from China.

The US financial market took a hit after the statement was made.

Oil prices plummeted 7 per cent, with Brent crude registering the biggest daily percentage drop since February 2016. The benchmark S&P 500, which had been in solidly positive territory on Thursday afternoon, closed down 0.9 per cent. Benchmark US Treasury yields also fell. Retail associations predicted a spike in consumer prices. Target Corp tumbled 4.2 per cent, Macy's Inc fell 6 per cent and Nordstrom Inc was down 6.2 per cent.

However, Trump said that he was “not concerned about that at all”. The tariff increase will also adversely impact the US consumers.

"President Trump is, in effect, using American families as a hostage in his trade war negotiations," said Matt Priest, president of the Footwear Distributors and Retailers of America.

Meanwhile, Hu Xijin, editor-in-chief of the Communist Party-backed newspaper, said on Twitter that new tariffs will by no means bring closer a deal that the US wants and only push it further away as China will focus more on efforts to survive a prolonged trade war.