Trump Threatens China With New Tariffs Worth $300 Billion

AP Photo.

Earlier in the month, Reuters reported that the United States had started collecting new 25 percent tariffs on a vast number of Chinese goods arriving in the country's ports.

US President Donald Trump on Thursday threatened to impose another round of tariffs on $300 billion worth of Chinese goods.

"Our talks with China, a lot of interesting things are happening. We'll see what happens… I could go up another at least $300 billion and I'll do that at the right time", Trump said, without specifying which goods could be impacted.

"But I think China wants to make a deal and I think Mexico wants to make a deal badly", the US president added.

The day before, the Chinese authorities announced that they had imposed a $23.6 million fine on Ford's joint venture with Changan Automobile for "price fixing" as trade tensions between the Asian country and the US are gaining momentum.

Trade disagreements between the US and China emerged last June after President Donald Trump decided to impose 25 percent tariffs on $50 billion worth of Chinese goods in a bid to fix the trade deficit.

Since then, the two countries have exchanged several rounds of duties.

Most recently, Washington raised tariffs on another $200 billion worth of Chinese goods to 25 percent last week. Beijing retaliated by announcing tariff hikes of up to 25 percent on $60 billion worth of US imports starting in June.

Besides the tariff war, in May US President Donald Trump issued an executive order adding China's Huawei and its 70 affiliates to a trade blacklist, thereby restricting its activity in the country.