Trump Says Tariffs Are ‘Great Negotiating Tool’ as Further US Tariffs Loom for China

U.S. President Donald Trump talks to reporters as he departs for travel to Japan from the White House in Washington on May 24, 2019. (Reuters/Leah Millis)

President Donald Trump on June 11 said tariffs were a useful negotiating tool, while the Chinese regime has yet to confirm a meeting between Trump and Chinese leader Xi Jinping at the upcoming G20 Summit.

Trump, in a series of tweets, said “tariffs are a great negotiating tool,” and a “powerful way to ... get companies that have left us for other lands to come back home.”

He also said the Chinese regime devalues its currency and subsidizes companies in order to lessen the effect of U.S. tariffs imposed on its goods.

Last week, Trump said he would decide whether to impose additional tariffs on $300 billion worth of Chinese goods after meeting with his Chinese counterpart at the G20 Summit in Osaka, Japan, in late June.

While the president has said on multiple occasions that the two leaders are scheduled to meet during the summit, the Chinese regime has refused to confirm the engagement. Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Geng Shuang on June 11 said the information would be released once it was available to the foreign ministry.

Yesterday Trump said the further tariffs would go into effect immediately if Xi does not meet with him.

The president reached a deal with Mexico on June 7 after two days of negotiations, prompted by a threat by Trump to impose 5 percent tariffs on Mexican goods unless Mexican authorities did more to stem the flow of illegal aliens into the United States.

In early May, the U.S. administration increased tariffs on $200 billion of Chinese goods after accusing the Chinese regime of reneging on commitments made over months of negotiations. The regime retaliated by imposing a tariff hike on $60 billion of U.S. imports.

Relations between the two countries further deteriorated after the United States effectively banned Chinese telecom giant Huawei from doing business with American firms, on national security grounds.

In measures of apparent retaliation, the regime announced it would set up its own “unreliable entity list“ of companies, organizations, and individuals that harm Chinese businesses. It also recently said it was preparing a tech export control list that would ban the export of Chinese technology to foreign countries, with a view to resolve “risks to national security more efficiently.” Details of both these lists have yet to be released.

U.S. Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross said at a press conference on June 11 that he was hopeful a meeting between Trump and Xi during G20 would lead to future trade discussions.

Earlier, Ross told CNBC that it was unlikely the dispute will be resolved at the upcoming summit, saying it would not be “a place where anyone makes a definitive deal.”

“At the G20, at most it will be ... some sort of agreement on a path forward, but certainly it’s not going to be a definite agreement,” Ross said.