President Donald Trump is ready to proceed with tariffs on the remaining $300 billion in Chinese goods in the absence of a trade deal, according to U.S. Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross.
Ross said enforcement would be the most important element of any potential deal between the world’s two largest economies.
“We will eventually make a deal, but if we don’t, the president is perfectly happy with continuing the tariff movements that we’ve already announced, as well as imposing the new ones that he has temporarily suspended,” Ross said.
Ross played down the prospect of an agreement being reached at the G-20 meeting in Osaka on June 28-29, where Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping are expected to be in attendance. He said the G-20 was not a place “where you’re going to negotiate a 2,500 page agreement,” adding that “there may be an agreement on the path forward, but that’s about as far as we can expect it to go.”