US to ‘Substantially Raise’ Tariffs if China Trade Deal Falls Through, Warns Trump

The U.S. and China are “close” to a trade agreement, President Donald Trump told the Economic Club of New York Tuesday. The Chinese are “dying to make a deal,” said Trump. “We’re the ones that are deciding whether we want to make a deal.” A “significant phase 1 trade deal with China could happen,” and “could happen soon,” he said. “But we will only accept a deal if it’s good for the United States and our workers and our great companies.” If the U.S. doesn’t make a deal, “we’re going to substantially raise those tariffs,” he said. The “real cost” would be if the U.S. “did nothing” to curb China’s allegedly unfair practices, he said. “The cost of doing nothing was killing us as a country.” The Treasury soon will reach $100 billion in Section 301 tariffs collected on Chinese imports, he said. “You haven’t seen inflation and you haven’t seen, in many cases, price increases.”