US President Donald Trump said Friday that he was ready to impose tariffs on all imports from China.
"We are down 375 billion but other estimates could say 507… We are down a tremendous amount. I raised 50… I'm ready to go to 500," Trump told CNBC in an interview. "I'm not doing this for politics, I'm doing this to do the right thing for our country," Trump added. "We have been ripped off by China for a long time."
Donald Trump said that China, EU manipulating currencies, keeping interest rates low while the US rate rises.
"China, the European Union and others have been manipulating their currencies and interest rates lower, while the US is raising rates while the dollars gets stronger and stronger with each passing day — taking away our big competitive edge. As usual, not a level playing field," Trump said in a Twitter message.
In May, the White House issued a statement saying that the United States will impose a 25-percent tariff on $50 billion of goods imported from China, which contain "industrially significant technology."
READ MORE: US Tariffs to Have Limited Effect on China's GDP Growth, Exports — Moody's
Amid trade tensions between China and the United States in recent months, the US side has criticized Beijing's excessive tariffs on automobiles that put US automakers in a disadvantaged position. According to figures from Chinese Customs, automobiles and auto parts imports from the United States reached $15 billion in 2017.
Putin-Trump Summit
Speaking about summit in Helsinki, Donald Trump said that conversation with Russian leader Vladimir Putin was not always agreeable.
"So I had a meeting that lasted for more than two hours. It wasn't always conciliatory," Trump told CNBC in an interview recorded on Thursday. "We discussed lots of good things for both countries, frankly."
On July 16, Russian President Vladimir Putin and US President Donald Trump met in Helsinki during a one-on-one summit dedicated to a number of pressing issues, including alleged Russian meddling in the US presidential vote, Syria, gas supplies to Europe and the Iranian nuclear deal.