Trump Sees ‘No Reason’ to Meet Xi, Threatens New Tariffs
US President Donald Trump said he saw “no reason” to meet Chinese President Xi Jinping and threatened a “massive increase” of tariffs on goods from China, citing recent “hostile” export controls on rare-earth minerals.
“I was to meet President Xi in two weeks, at APEC, in South Korea, but now there seems to be no reason to do so,” Trump posted Friday on social media.
The president added that one countermeasure the US is considering “is a massive increase of Tariffs on Chinese products coming into the United States of America,” adding that “There are many other countermeasures that are, likewise, under serious consideration.”
The announcement casts in doubt not only the agenda for Trump’s planned trip to Asia, which included a meeting with Xi later this month at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit, but also the future of negotiations over Chinese refusal to purchase US soybeans, which has hammered American farmers.
Stocks reversed earlier gains and soybeans extended losses after Trump’s post, which portended fresh trade tensions between the world’s two largest economies.
The post follows a series of moves by both the US and China to potentially curb flows of technology and materials between the countries — all ahead of the presidents’ planned meeting in Asia later this month.
In the most recent action, China slapped new port fees on US ships and started an antitrust investigation into Qualcomm Inc. — following fresh efforts to restrict the flow of rare-earth materials needed for numerous consumer products.
China this week required that overseas exporters of items that use even traces of certain rare earths to obtain an export license, according to the Ministry of Commerce, citing national-security concerns. Some equipment and technology for processing rare earths and making magnets will also be subject to controls, the ministry said in a separate release.
Source: Bloomberg
