Trump threatens more tariffs on China amid ongoing tensions

The US imposed three rounds of tariffs on Chinese exports this year

The US and China have since agreed to a 90-day trade war truce until March 2, but supply chain firms and vendors said this has not slowed buying or forward orders because the tariffs could still be hiShow more

US President Donald Trump has hinted at the possibility of a second round of tariffs on China, following the duties the US imposed on metal and other imports earlier this year.

Mr Trump told the CBS news programme 60 Minutes that more tariffs “might” be forthcoming. “I want them [China] to negotiate a fair deal with us. I want them to open their markets like our markets are open,” he said on Sunday.

The US imposed three rounds of tariffs on Chinese imports worth $250 billion. China responded by imposing duties on some US products.

Mr Trump told CBS he did not want to tip the Chinese economy into a recession, and compared the country’s stock market losses since the metal tariffs to those in 1929 when the Great Depression hit the US.

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The Shanghai Composite fell by as much as 6 per cent on Thursday amid concerns about increasing trade tensions and increases in US borrowing rates. Chinese state-owned newspaper Global Times published an editorial on Friday saying the country's stock market "has a limited impact on the whole Chinese economy, and the Chinese economy has withstood this round of impacts".

The country’s customs agency said on Friday that foreign trade growth may slow in the fourth quarter compared to the same period last year. Meanwhile, the country’s central bank governor Yi Gang sought to reassure markets during an International Monetary Fund meeting in Bali on Sunday.

He said China has plenty of room for adjustment in interest rates and reserves ratio to ward off any negative impact from trade tensions with the US.