US ready to impose $267B additional tariffs on China

By Ovunc Kutlu

NEW YORK

The U.S. is ready to impose an additional $267 billion worth of tariffs on Chinese goods, President Donald Trump announced Friday.

"I hate to say that, but behind that, there’s another $267 billion ready to go on short notice if I want," Trump told reporters aboard the Air Force One.

The Trump administration is also ready to implement $200 billion on China after the public comment period of that expired Thursday.

"The $200 billion we’re talking about, could take place very soon, depending what happens with them. To a certain extent it’s going to be up to China," Trump said.

So far, the U.S. government has already imposed $50 billion tariffs on goods it imports from China, which saw retaliation from Beijing immediately.

If Trump decides to impose the additional $267 billion tariffs, that would bring the total value of U.S.' planned and already implemented tariffs on China more than its actual imports from that country last year.

The U.S. imported $505 billion worth of Chinese goods in 2017, according to the Commerce Department figures. Goods imports from China in the first half of this year is around $250 billion so far.

Additional tariffs on China are expected to escalate the trade tensions between the world's two biggest economies, as investor worries have caused losses in major indexes on Wall Street.

The Dow Jones was down 136 points at 2 p.m. EST (1800GMT), while the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq were each down around 0.3 percent.

About the ongoing trade negotiations between the U.S. and Canada, Trump said the talks are "moving along."

"I’m working on Canada now. People have been saying, I’m too tough on Canada. Look, Canada has been ripping us off for a long time. Now, they’ve got to treat us fairly," he said.

Last week, Trump announced signing a preliminary trade deal with Mexico and added he would scrap the 24-year-old North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) between the three countries.

He had also threatened to impose taxes on the U.S.' imports of cars from Mexico.

"I do use that as leverage in negotiating, where they don’t want to give us some points, I say, that’s ok, I’d rather tax your cars coming in, and I win a lot of points because of it," Trump told reporters Friday.