The president of the United States, Donald Trump, warned China that the tariff reprisals will harm the Asian country and was “optimistic” in the face of the possibility of reaching an agreement with Beijing, said Friday the spokeswoman for the White House, Karoline Leavitt.
China does not agree to continue retaliation. The United States is the strongest and best economy in the world, as evidenced by the more than 75 countries that have asked the administration to immediately reach an agreement. The president wants to do the right thing for the American people, Leavitt said.
China announced this Friday that it will increase from 84% to 125% tariffs on all imported products from the United States, in response to the latest rates approved by Washington, which make the percentage over Beijing rise in total to 145%.
The measure, which will enter into force on April 12, was confirmed by the Committee of Customs Tariffs of the Chinese State Council, which condemns US trade policy for “seriously violating the norms of international trade” and applying “a unilateral policy of harassment and coercion.”
Leavitt stressed this Friday that the 145% tariff is maintained: the president has made it very clear that when the United States receives a blow, it counterattacks with more force, he said before the media.
The presidential spokeswoman did not want to affirm if there are already contacts between the respective governments, but she said that Trump is confident that China will reach an agreement.
Asked about the reason why the US business partners would like to collaborate in an isolation to China, she pointed out that, although these are the ones who must answer the phones in Washington, “they have not stopped sounding”: they have made it very clear: they need the United States. They need our markets. They need our consumers.
Leavitt stressed that the objective of the imposition of tariffs – on the one that has decreed a partial truce of 90 days, except for China – is “renegotiate a global commercial agenda” that, in his opinion, has taken advantage of the Americans for too long. The tariff sway has caused falls in the bags and the fear that the country enters recession. There will be a transition period, the spokeswoman reiterated, in the line of what was expressed by Trump, which, according to Leavitt, “wants consumers to trust him.”