Trump says it's "fine with me" if China doesn't want to trade with the U.S.
President Trump said it's "fine" if the U.S. can't reach a trade agreement with China. "If they don't want to trade with us anymore, that would be fine with me," he told reporters as he left for a campaign rally in Cincinnati Thursday. "We'd save a lot of money," he added.
After a new round of trade talks failed to produce a deal with China this week, Mr. Trump announced new tariffs on China — 10% on the remaining $300 billion in Chinese goods that have not been subjected to tariffs. The president had already imposed a 25% tariff on $250 billion in Chinese imports, and that's still in place.
Mr. Trump also said that Chinese President Xi Jinping had not followed through with promises he had made to buy more U.S. agricultural products and to stop the flow in fentanyl into the U.S. from China.
The announcement of new tariffs sent stocks spiraling, and the Dow Jones Industrial Average had dropped 500 points as of 2:40 p.m. When the markets closed, the Dow had given up 281 points, having fallen 1.05%.
Mr. Trump said that the tariffs are damaging China, not the U.S. "There's been absolutely no inflation, and frankly, it hasn't cost our consumer anything. It has cost China," he claimed.
"What China is doing is they're devaluing their currency and they're pumping money out like they've never done before. And they're paying for these tariffs," Mr. Trump said. "We're not."
He said he thinks that Chinese President Xi Jinping wants to make a deal, "but frankly, he's not going fast enough."
"China is dying to make a deal with me," he also said.