Trump is pressuring number of countries to limit their trade relations with China - WSJ
The White House is seeking to use tariff negotiations with a number of countries to put pressure on trading partners to limit their relations with China.
This is reported by The Wall Street Journal, Censor.NET informs with reference to espreso.
It is noted that the Trump administration's plans are to obtain commitments from partners to isolate China's economy in exchange for reducing trade and tariff barriers imposed by the White House.
US diplomats want to use negotiations with more than 70 countries to ask them to ban China from shipping goods through their countries and to prevent Chinese firms from operating in their territories.
Thus, the United States wants to undermine China's economy and force Beijing to the negotiating table with less leverage ahead of potential talks between Donald Trump and Chinese leader Xi Jinping.
According to sources, US officials have already discussed this idea in the early stages of negotiations with some countries.
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, who has been playing a leading role in trade negotiations, is reportedly one of those who proposed the idea. He proposed this strategy to Trump during a meeting on 6 April in Mar-a-Lago.
US duties against China
First, the US imposed 20% tariffs on Beijing, then added another 34%. After that, China imposed duties on American goods, and the day before Trump threatened additional tariffs of 50% - and he kept his promise.
The Trump administration has increased duties on Chinese goods to 104% since 9 April.
China responded to Trump's new tariffs by raising tariffs on US goods to 84%. After that, Trump immediately raised the tariff rate for China to 125%.
Earlier, Trump also called China's decision to impose mirror 34 per cent tariffs on all imports from the United States on 10 April a mistake.
