Trump Says New Tariffs Will Take Effect Immediately If Xi Doesn’t Meet With Him at G20

President Donald Trump talks with reporters before departing on Marine One, in Washington, on May 30, 2019. Evan Vucci/AP Photo

President Donald Trump said additional tariffs on Chinese goods will go into effect, if Chinese leader Xi Jinping doesn’t meet with him during the upcoming G20 Summit.

In an interview on CNBC on June 10, Trump said that proposed tariffs on $300 billion worth of Chinese goods would immediately be imposed in the event that the two leaders do not meet. But he added that he expected his Chinese counterpart would attend.

“I think he will go, and I think we are scheduled to have a meeting,” Trump said.

The president previously said he would decide on whether to impose the additional tariffs after meeting with Xi at the G20 Summit, to be held in Osaka, Japan from June 28 to June 29.

Earlier on June 10, China’s Foreign Ministry, in a regular news briefing, would not confirm whether a meeting was scheduled between the two leaders at G20.

In early May, the Trump administration increased tariffs to 25 percent from 10 percent on $200 billion worth of Chinese imports after accusing the Chinese regime of backflipping on commitments negotiated over months of trade talks. The regime later imposed a retaliatory tariff hike on $60 billion of U.S. goods.

Trump, in the interview, said he thought that the regime would “make a deal because they’re going to have to make a deal.”

“The China deal is going to work out. You know why? Because of tariffs,” Trump said. “Right now, China is getting absolutely decimated by companies that are leaving China, going to other countries, including our own, because they don’t want to pay the tariffs.”

Last month, Nikkei Asian Review reported that Japanese electronics giant Ricoh will move production of its U.S.-bound printers from China to Vietnam. Several Japanese machinery manufacturers also said they would move some of its production lines out of China.

Japanese electronics maker Sharp is also considering relocating its U.S.-bound laptop and display screens away from China.

On June 9, U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin told CNBC at the end of the G20 Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors Meeting in Fukuoka, Japan, that if no progress is made on the stalled trade talks, the president would not hesitate to enact further tariffs.

“If China wants to move forward with the deal, we’re prepared to move forward on the terms we’ve done,” Mnuchin said.

“If China does not want to move forward, then President Trump is perfectly happy to move forward with tariffs to rebalance the relationship.”

Mnuchin earlier met with China’s central bank governor Yi Gang on the sidelines of the Fukuoka meeting, in which the two had a “candid” discussion about trade, the treasury secretary said. This was the first face-to-face meeting between high-level officials on both sides since trade talks ended without agreement in early May.

“Had constructive meeting with PBOC [People’s Bank of China] Governor Yi Gang, during which we had a candid discussion on trade issues,” Mnuchin wrote in a tweet on June 9, that also included a photograph of the two men shaking hands.