US President Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping will be meeting at the Group of 20 industrial and developing nations in Buenos Aires, Argentina. The event, set to start on 30 November, will see the two world leaders continue discussions on trade and tariffs, after an unsuccessful round of talks earlier this fall. Trump told the Wall Street Journal that it is “highly unlikely” that he will accept China’s request to postpone tariff increases and to impose tariffs on more goods. Trump also said a tariff of 10 percent could be placed on Apple iPhones and laptop computers imported from China. These had escaped earlier tariff rounds.
If negotiations do not progress as Trump wishes them to, the tariff levels on USD 200 billion worth of Chinese goods will go up to 25 percent from 1 January. The president will also put tariffs on USD 267 billion worth of additional goods, of either 10 percent or 25 percent.
Trump first started talk about higher tariffs on the initial USD 200 billion worth of goods during the summer. China has asked the US to suspend the planned 1 January increase, to not put additional tariffs on other Chinese products and to lift the existing punitive taxes on China-made steel and aluminum.
