Former US president Donald Trump has said he would impose more tariffs on Chinese goods if he wins the US presidential election in November.
In an interview with Fox News, he said the tariffs could be in excess of 60%. “We have to do it,” he said in the interview on Sunday.
Mr Trump, currently the front runner for the Republican party, is facing a number of criminal charges including attempting to overturn the 2020 election results. He has denied these.
He has long accused China of unfair trading practices and intellectual property theft.
“You know, obviously I’m not looking to hurt China. I want to get along with China. I think it’s great. But they’ve really taken advantage of our country,” the frontrunner for the Republican Party’s presidential nomination said.
During his presidency, Mr Trump triggered a bitter trade war between the world’s two largest economies as he imposed tariffs on hundreds of billions of dollars worth of Chinese goods.
The Trump administration first began imposing tariffs aimed at curbing Chinese imports in 2018. The policy escalated to duties on goods ranging from seafood to chemicals later that year.
Beijing responded with levies on US imports including soybeans, wheat and poultry.
Current US President Joe Biden’s administration has largely kept the tariffs in place, despite criticism that they have helped to push up prices and made the US less competitive.
The US has been China’s biggest export market for over two decades.
However, curbing US-China economic ties is gaining support from some Republican and Democrat lawmakers. A recent House committee report recommended higher tariffs on imports from China and restrictions on Chinese investments in the US.
