The White House has warned China that further retaliation through tariff hikes would not serve Beijing\u2019s interests, as the world\u2019s two largest economies clash over trade.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Press secretary Caroline Leavitt has stated that over 75 countries reached out to US President Donald Trump\u2019s administration to initiate trade talks, a sign that Washington\u2019s tariff policy is working, she argued.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThe phones have been ringing off the hook to make deals,\u201d<\/em> she said on Friday during a press briefing at the White House. \u201cThese countries wisely heeded President Trump\u2019s warning not to retaliate\u2026 and were rewarded with a 90-day pause and substantially lower reciprocal tariff rates,\u201d<\/em> she added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In early April, Trump imposed a universal 10% tariff on all imports and higher \u201creciprocal\u201d<\/em> tariffs on select countries to promote domestic manufacturing and address trade imbalances. While most elevated tariffs were paused for 90 days, China was excluded from this reprieve. The total tariff on Chinese goods has been hiked to 145%. In response, China imposed a 125% tariff on US imports, while criticizing Washington\u2019s actions as \u201ceconomic bullying\u201d<\/em> and warning that continued escalations would render the US a \u201cjoke\u201d<\/em> in global economic history.<\/p>\n\n\n\n When asked directly about China, Leavitt reiterated Trump\u2019s stance. \u201cThe tariff rate on China remains where it was yesterday at the 145 percent level,\u201d<\/em> she confirmed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Beijing has signaled that its recent tariff hike might be the last, and that further increases would not make economic sense.<\/p>\n\n\n\n When asked if this meant China was backing down, Leavitt said the US president had made it very clear that \u201cwhen the United States is punched, he will punch back harder.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n Leavitt said the administration remains open to negotiations, claiming Trump would \u201cbe gracious if China intends to make a deal with the United States,\u201d<\/em> but added without elaborating, \u201cIf China continues to retaliate, it\u2019s not good for China.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n She also rebuffed critics who said the US administration had not pushed China hard enough with tariffs, saying \u201cTrump is finally taking bold and courageous action.\u201d<\/em> She added that both Democrats and Republicans have talked tough on China for years, but \u201cno other president had the courage, the work ethic, or the stamina to take on such a task.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The White House has warned China that further retaliation through tariff hikes would not serve Beijing\u2019s interests, as the world\u2019s two largest economies clash over trade. Press secretary Caroline Leavitt has stated that over 75 countries reached out to US President Donald Trump\u2019s administration to initiate trade talks, a sign that Washington\u2019s tariff policy is…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":369,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[70],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1688","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-trump-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pacificislands.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1688","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pacificislands.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pacificislands.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pacificislands.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pacificislands.news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1688"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/pacificislands.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1688\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1689,"href":"https:\/\/pacificislands.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1688\/revisions\/1689"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pacificislands.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/369"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pacificislands.news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1688"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pacificislands.news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1688"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pacificislands.news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1688"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}