Politics

Trump Floating More China Tariffs If Xi Doesn’t Sit Down At G20

Photo by Kyodo News via Getty Images

Henry Rodgers Chief National Correspondent
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President Donald Trump said Monday that he is considering slapping China with more tariffs if Chinese President Xi Jinping does not meet with him during the G-20 summit in late June.

Trump called into CNBC early Monday morning for a phone interview to discuss a variety of different issues including the possibility of Xi not accepting an invitation to meet with Trump during the G-20 summit in Osaka, Japan, from June 28 to June 29.

The president said if Jinping does not attend the event, he will immediately slap China with new tariffs on $300 billion in Chinese imports, including a number of consumer products.

“China is going to make a deal because they are going to have to make a deal,” Trump said, adding that he and the Chinese president and have “a great relationship” and that Xi is “actually an incredible guy.”

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“Tariffs are a beautiful thing when you are the piggy bank,” Trump later said.

This all comes after Trump signed an agreement with Mexico Friday night to suspend tariffs that were set to take effect Monday. In exchange for suspending the tariffs, Mexico agreed to help the U.S. with illegal immigration. (RELATED: Here Are The Republicans In Congress Standing With Trump Over Mexico Tariff Threat)

During the last G-20 summit in December, Trump was able to get a number of deals from Xi Jinping in exchange for not implementing any new tariffs on Chinese goods.

After a potential deal faded following talks at the 2018 G-20 summit, the U.S. raised tariffs from 10% to 25% on goods from China in May, bringing up the number of tariffs to around $200 billion on Chinese goods. After the U.S. announced its tariffs, Beijing raised its tariffs on $60 billion worth of U.S. goods three days later.

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