Trump 'ready' to intensify trade war with China
Washington, July 20 : US President Donald Trump has said he is ready to intensify his trade war with China by slapping tariffs on all imports worth $500 billion.
"I'm ready to go to 500," he told CNBC's Joe Kernen in a "Squawk Box" interview broadcasted on Friday.
The reference was to the dollar amount of Chinese exports to the US in 2017 -- $505.5 billion to be exact, compared to the $129.9 billion worth of Chinese imports from the US, according to the Census Bureau data.
Last week, Washington listed $200 billion worth of additional Chinese products it intends to place under the tariff regime on as soon as September.
The list named more than 6,000 items including food products, minerals and consumer goods such as handbags, to be subjected to a 10 per cent tariff. It is still under public consultation that will go on till the end of August.
The US and China already imposed tit-for-tat tariffs of $34 billion on each other's goods.
"I'm not doing this for politics, I'm doing this to do the right thing for our country," Trump said. "We have been ripped off by China for a long time."
The President said the US was "being taken advantage of" on a number of fronts, including trade and monetary policy. Yet he said he has not pushed the tariffs out of any ill will towards China.
"I don't want them to be scared. I want them to do well," he said. "I really like President Xi Jinping a lot, but it was very unfair."
Trump also said he was told by unspecified Chinese officials that "nobody would ever complain" from past administrations "until you came along - me. They said, 'Now you're more than complaining. We don't like what you're doing.'"
The US also wants China to stop practices that allegedly encourage transfer of intellectual property -- design and product ideas -- to Chinese companies, such as requirements that foreign firms share ownership with local partners to access the Chinese market.
Trump previously hinted at such an escalation, telling reporters two weeks ago that there was "$300 billion in abeyance" after the $200 billion of goods covered by the latest list, but this is his most explicit threat yet.
Many companies in the US are opposed to the administration's use of tariffs against China, saying they risk hurting business and the economy without being likely to change behaviour.
European stock markets fell after the interview was broadcast, with the FTSE 100 down 0.2 per cent.
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UP: Misled by GPS navigation, car falls into river from partially constructed bridge, 3 dead
Bareilly (UP), Nov 24: Three people died when their car fell into the Ramganga river from a partially constructed bridge here on Sunday, police said, adding that they suspect the driver was misled by its navigation system into taking the unsafe route.
The accident occurred around 10 am on the Khalpur-Dataganj road when the victims were travelling from Bareilly to Dataganj in the Badaun district, they said.
"Earlier this year, floods had caused the front portion of the bridge to collapse into the river, but this change had not been updated in the system," Circle Officer Ashutosh Shivam said.
The driver was using a navigation system and did not realise that the bridge was unsafe, driving the car off the damaged section, the police said.
There were no safety barriers or warning signs on the approach to the damaged bridge, leading to the fatal accident, Shivam said.
Upon receiving information, police teams from Faridpur, Bareilly and Dataganj police station rushed to the spot. They recovered the vehicle and the bodies from the river, Shivam added.
The circle officer said that bodies had been sent for post-mortem. Further investigation into the matter is underway.
— Bareilly Police (@bareillypolice) November 24, 2024
