After his recent controversial push on steel and aluminium tariffs, President Donald Trump is reportedly preparing to impose a hefty $60 billion in annual tariffs against Chinese products.
Trump plans to unveil his tariff package for Chinese goods by Friday, The Washington Post reported on Tuesday, citing four unnamed senior administration officials.
Right from the time of his presidential campaign, Trump has held out the threat of dealing with China on several issues, ranging from tariffs to intellectual property protection.
The Post reported that while his senior aides had mooted a $30 billion tariff package on a range of Chinese products, Trump directed them to roughly double the levies.
The package is proposed to be applied to over 100 products that have reportedly been developed by using trade secrets that China stole from US companies or forced them to hand over in exchange for access to its massive market, the paper reported.
Trump has repeatedly focused on punitive trade measures in recent weeks. He has held out the prospect of imposing “reciprocal tax” on countries such as China and India. In respect of India, he has repeatedly held forth on the high import tariffs on America’s Harley-Davidson motorcycles while the US, according to him, charges “zero duty” on Indian motorcycles.