16 June 2018 12:00 am
WASHINGTON (Reuters),JUNE 15 2018
U.S. President Trump has made up his mind to impose “pretty significant” tariffs on Chinese goods, an administration official said on Thursday, as Beijing warned that it was ready to respond if Washington chose to ratchet up trade tensions.
Trump is due to unveil revisions to his initial tariff list targeting $50 billion of Chinese goods on Friday. The list will contain 800 product categories, down from 1,300 previously, according to another administration official and an industry source familiar with the list.
Trump no longer believes that Beijing’s influence over North Korea is a compelling reason to ease up on trade talks now that his administration has opened up a direct line of communication with the nuclear-armed country, the first administration official said.
U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin argued against imposing the tariffs at a White House meeting on Thursday but he was not expected to prevail, the official said.
The Chinese government’s top diplomat, State Councillor Wang Yi, said his country was prepared to respond if Trump went ahead with the tariffs.