Trump willing to hit all Chinese goods with high tariffs: report

"I'm ready to go 500," US network CNBC quoted the President as saying on the $505.5 billion worth of Chinese imports into the United States in 2017.

“I’m not doing this for politics,” Trump said in an interview with CNBC. “I’m doing this to do the right thing for our country. We have been ripped off by China for too long.”

United States imported goods worth $505.5 billion from China in 2017, against exports of $129.9 billion to that country, showing a trade deficit of $375.6 billion, data from the Census. Bureau showed.

President Trump attacked the EU as well, saying both China and the EU were manipulating their currencies, even as he threatened to hit all imports from China with high tariffs.

Trump’s comments come in the wake of a growing rift between the two biggest economies. China on Thursday said that US claims of President Xi Jinping blocking talks with the US over the trade war were “false”, Bloomberg reported. White House Economic Adviser Larry Kudlow said that Xi did not want to agree to trade with the US.

After weeks of apparently fruitless negotiations, the United States early this month imposed 25 per cent tariffs on approximately $34 billion of Chinese high-tech products, inviting an immediate response from Beijing.

China hit back dollar for dollar and accused the United States of starting the "largest trade war in economic history."

The United States is in the process of reviewing a second tranche of $16 billion in products that could soon be added to the US measures.

Washington has already said it was targeting another $200 billion in imports which would see fresh tariffs imposed on Chinese goods by September.

The White House in June threatened to extend punishing US duties progressively to up to $450 billion in Chinese imports.

The US-China trade spat has raised the prospect of global supply chains, pushing companies to hold off on investments and making goods more expensive for consumers.