The U.S. President added that China does not want the United States to hike tariffs by 100%, and that it “wants to talk.”
President Donald Trump on Friday said that he could move up the November 1 deadline to hike tariffs on China if he wanted, while addressing reporters at the White House following a meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
“I think we’re in a very strong position. We’re getting, as you know, as of November 1.. we could move it up if I wanted.. 100% tariff over and above what we get now. So that would make it about 157%,” Trump said while answering a question after the meeting.
He added that China does not want the U.S. to hike tariffs by 100%, and that it “wants to talk.”
“I think we’ll make a deal that would be good for both. I think we will do something, but you have to understand, we never got anything from China. It was a one-way street for many years… for decades it was a one-way street, and they became rich because of the United States,” the President said, adding that all that his administration wants is for the U.S. to be treated fairly. He stated that this would entail “hundreds of billions and even trillions of dollars coming into the United States,” adding that tariffs have maintained the U.S.’s national security.
Earlier on Friday, President Trump said that the tariff hikes on China are “not sustainable,” while stating that the latter forced him to levy those tariffs. However, he expressed optimism about resolving the dispute. “I think we’re going to be fine with China, but we have to have a fair deal. It’s got to be fair,” he said in a Fox Business interview, adding that he gets along well with Chinese President Xi Jinping.
Meanwhile, U.S. equities gained in Friday afternoon’s trade. At the time of writing, the SPDR S&P 500 ETF (SPY), which tracks the S&P 500 index, was up 0.63%, the Invesco QQQ Trust ETF (QQQ) rose 0.79%, while the SPDR Dow Jones Industrial Average ETF Trust (DIA) gained 0.65%. Retail sentiment around the S&P 500 ETF on Stocktwits was in the ‘bearish’ territory.
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