China’s foreign ministry spokesperson had a message for Donald Trump. ” We don’t want to fight, but we are not afraid to fight.”⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
China shot back on Friday after Trump announced via Twitter that the U.S. would impose even more tariff’s on $300 billion of China’s imports beginning next month.
Trump sent the tweets after 11:30 am Friday, following a meeting at the White House in which his trade team briefed him on the current state of negotiations in China.
According to NBC News, U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin had just returned from trade the stalled trade talks in Shanghai, where little progress appeared to have been made. This fact only seemed to frustrate Trump more. The negotiations reportedly ended early, but a new meeting has been set up for September.
Trump took to twitter to update the nation. “More recently, China agreed to buy agricultural product from the U.S. in large quantities but did not do so. Additionally, my friend President Xi said that he would stop the sale of Fentanyl to the United States — this never happened, and many Americans continue to die, “he tweeted.
Negotiations between the two sides initially stalled in May, after Beijing reportedly sent Washington a 150-page document that reneged on several previous concessions. That led to Trump hiking tariffs on $200 billion of imported Chinese goods to 25 percent, bringing the total levied at that rate to $250 billion.
Trump’s twitter announcement Friday, seems to increase the tariff by 10% to $300 Billion and will start next month.
