Report: Trump continues plans to tax Chinese fares

(WASHINGTON) – President Donald Trump intends to impose new tariffs on about 200 billion dollars of Chinese imports, the Wall Street Journal reported Saturday.

Both parties were preparing to hold further discussions on their tariff dispute. Last week, Trump told reporters that such a decision could happen "very soon".

The newspaper quoted anonymous people familiar with the case who said the level of tariffs should be set at around 10 percent, down from the 25 percent announced earlier this year.

Both governments have already imposed tariffs of 25% on $ 50 billion of their respective products. Beijing has released a list of additional $ 60 billion worth of US products to retaliate if Trump's next price hike continues.

White House spokeswoman Lindsay Walters declined to comment on the timing of a possible announcement, but said, "The President has made it clear that he and his administration will continue to take action against commercial practices. disloyal to China. We encourage China to respond to the long-standing concerns raised by the United States. "

China's Foreign Ministry said on Thursday it was invited to hold further talks. Representatives of the two countries met for the last time on August 22 in Washington but did not report any progress.

Beijing has rejected US pressure to roll back state-led development projects of Chinese global champions in the fields of robotics, artificial intelligence and other fields.

Washington, Europe and other trading partners say the plans violate China's market opening commitments. US officials are also worried that they could erode US industrial leadership.

Forecasters have warned that a worsening conflict between the world's two largest traders could cut global economic growth by 0.5 percentage points by 2020 if all threatened tariff increases continue.

China has unsuccessfully tried to recruit Germany, France, South Korea and other governments as allies against Washington. Some of them have criticized Trump's tactics, but many blame the United States for complaining about the Chinese market barriers and industrial strategy.