(Bloomberg) -- President Donald Trump declared that China’s leaders “broke the deal” that he was negotiating with them on trade, leading him to raise tariffs on billions of dollars in Chinese imports.
“They broke the deal!” Trump said at a campaign rally Wednesday night in Panama City Beach, Florida.
The president noted that top Chinese trade negotiator Liu He is traveling to Washington tomorrow for further talks. “Good man,” Trump said, “but they broke the deal.”
The U.S. has said it will raise tariffs on $200 billion of Chinese goods to 25 percent from 10 percent on Friday after alleging China reneged on provisions of a draft trade deal the White House considered settled. The Chinese government has said it would retaliate, escalating the trade war between the two countries.
Trump said there’s “nothing wrong with taking in $100 billion a year” in tariffs on Chinese imports, in the absence of a trade deal.