White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders responded to news of China’s retaliatory tariffs, urging the country to instead address its unfair trading practices.
“Instead of retaliating, China should address the longstanding concerns about its unfair trading practices, many of which are laid out in USTRs 301 report,” Sanders told Breitbart News in a response to news of the $60 billion in Chinese retaliatory tariffs on U.S. goods.
The news came Friday out of China’s commerce ministry that the country will be imposing $60 billion in retaliatory tariffs on news that the United States plans to raise the rate for $200 billion in proposed tariffs on China, from 10 percent to 25 percent.
While previously China issued retaliatory tariffs targeting U.S. goods in areas of the U.S. where President Trump typically finds support, Friday’s announcement from China did not identify which U.S. goods would be hit with the $60 billion in new retaliatory tariffs.
The Trump administration has issued temporary emergency financial support of $12 billion to help farmers hard-hit by China’s retaliatory tariffs such as soybean farmers. The move is meant to bide time while the tariffs fight between the two nations plays out.
President Donald Trump and his administration have repeatedly called on China to stop unfair trading practices, stop technology and intellectual property theft, and for a decrease in the U.S. trade deficit with the China.
The U.S. has already levied tariffs on $34 billion in Chinese goods with tariffs on another $16 billion set to go into effect in the near future. President Trump has proposed additional tariffs on up to $500 billion in Chinese goods if China does not change its unfair trading practices.
Less than a month after U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer’s June rebuke of China, the European Union, and other countries for retaliatory tariffs on U.S. goods, European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker met with President Trump at the White House. Immediately following that meeting the two world leaders announced that they would work toward and in the spirit of a “zero tariffs, zero non-tariff barriers, zero subsidies on non-auto industrial goods” trade deal.
Michelle Moons is a White House Correspondent for Breitbart News — follow on Twitter @MichelleDiana and Facebook
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