Washington sources reported that US President Donald Trump has said that it was "highly unlikely" he would accept an offer by his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping aimed at averting Trump's plan to raise tariffs on over $200 billion of Chinese goods to 25% in January 2019. Meanwhile Trump also warned once again that he was poised to slap a third round of tariffs on Chinese goods if the two leaders fail to broker an end to the trade rift in Buenos Aires, Argentina.
Accordingly "If we don't make a deal, then he is going to put the $267 billion additional on," said Trump in the interview, adding the tariff level could either be 10 or 25%. Furthermore Trump said in the interview that could include tariffs on Apple products imported from China, including iPhones and laptops. Hence Apple's stock fell 1.5% in after-hours trading, erasing earlier gains from the day.
Trump said “The tariffs have drawn complaints from American businesses, who are responsible for paying the import duties”. Moreover it is also spurred concerns about renewed inflation, just as the Federal Reserve is set to raise interest rates in December, where more than 100 companies have already pre-emptively telegraphed during the third quarter earnings calls the damage further tariffs would impose on the US economy.
