President Donald Trump said Friday that he is ready to impose tariffs on $267 billion in Chinese goods, on top of the additional $200bn that he said will likely be hit with import taxes in a matter of days.

If eventually carried out, Trump’s latest threat could result in tariffs on all Chinese goods entering the United States, an unprecedented escalation of his trade war with China.

The US in July began imposing tariffs on $50bn in Chinese industrial imports as Trump moved to confront Beijing over a range of policies that have long vexed American leaders.

“We’ve taxed them $50bn — that’s on technology,” the president told reporters aboard Air Force One. “Now we’ve added another $200bn. And I hate to say that, but behind that, there’s another $267bn ready to go on short notice if I want. That totally changes the equation.”

Stocks dipped after Trump’s comments became public but recovered most of their losses. The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed down about 77 points or 0.3 per cent in mid-afternoon trading.

The tariffs that Trump has imposed, and threatened to impose, total $517bn - more than the $505bn in Chinese goods that entered the country last year. The president says the tariffs are needed to force China to stop stealing US technology and coercing American companies to surrender their trade secrets in return for access to the Chinese market. It’s not clear why the president cited the specific figure he used. The White House did not reply to a request for comment.

So far this year, US imports from China are running roughly 8pc higher than during the same period in 2017. If that pace continued for the remainder of this year, Chinese imports would top $548bn - leaving Trump a bit short of complete coverage of Chinese goods.

The office of the US trade representative Thursday finished accepting comments on the next round of tariffs, which could hit up to $200bn in Chinese products any day. Many products purchased by consumers, such as refrigerators, spark plugs and furniture, are among the potential targets.

Bloomberg/The Washington Post Service

Published in Dawn, September 9th, 2018