Trump could slap China with tariffs by Friday - Politico

According to reporting by Politico, unnamed sources are saying that US President Donald Trump could impose a set of trade tariffs on China as soon as Friday, or sometime next week.

Key quotes

"The administration on Friday is planning to publish a final list of Chinese goods that will take the hit. 

The aggressive stance calls into question the future of talks between the two trade powers, which took a friendly turn in the weeks leading up to the North Korea summit as the U.S. sought China’s help. China was seen as playing a key role in getting North Korean leader Kim Jong Un to the table with Trump, who has consistently linked his trade demands to Beijing’s willingness to help on North Korea.

After the summit, Trump defended his personal friendship with Chinese President Xi Jinping and said he would call the Chinese leader, maybe on his way back to Washington. But he also said Beijing has not done an adequate job closing its border to trade with North Korea in recent months, which Trump seemed to blame for rising U.S.-China trade tensions.

“Which is a shame. But I have to do it. I have no choice. For our country, I have to do it,” Trump said at a press conference in Singapore, possibly referring to tariffs. The trade talks had been most recently focused on China’s willingness to increase imports of the very goods it is likely to target for retaliation: U.S. aircraft, soybeans and other high-value exports.

“I came away thinking that he was suggesting in the press conference in Singapore that although Xi Jinping was a close friend [and] that he’d provided help on North Korea, that the president had no choice but to turn up the heat on China,” said Scott Kennedy, a China expert at the Center for Strategic and International Studies."