Trump says U.S.-China trade deal could wait until after the 2020 election
U.S. stocks are tipped to open lower on Tuesday, after President Donald Trump suggested that his administration is in no hurry to strike a trade agreement with China.
“I have no deadline, no. In some ways I think it’s better to wait until after the election with China. In some ways I want to wait until after the election for a China deal,” the president told reporters in London on Tuesday ahead of a NATO security summit.
“But they want to make a deal now, and we’ll see whether or not the deal’s going to be right, it’s got to be right,” he added.
At 5:30 a.m. ET, the blue-chip Dow futures dropped 120.5 points, 0.43% to 27,668.5. The S&P 500 futures were down 12.63 points, or 0.41% to 3,101.62 while the tech-heavy Nasdaq 100 futures declined 45 points, or 0.54% to 8,271.
U.S. threatens tariffs of up to 100% on French goods
The Trump administration has proposed tariffs of up to 100% on $2.4 billion in imports from France after releasing the results of a five-month probe that concluded a new French digital services tax would hurt American internet companies.
On Monday, the U.S. Trade Representative’s office recommended tariffs on certain French imports, including cheese, handbags, wine and more. The French tax was signed into law July 24 and targets tech companies, such as Apple, Facebook, Amazon, and Google.
Trump has also revealed plans to raise tariffs on steel and aluminum from Argentina and Brazil, accusing the two nations of devaluing their currencies and hurting U.S. farmers.
China hints of a blacklist of “unreliable entities”
Chinese state news media says the government will soon unveil a blacklist of “unreliable entities” for punishing foreign firms that harm its interests, according to Bloomberg News.
The Global Times, a communist-backed newspaper, tweeted that China was speeding up the move in retaliation for a U.S. legislation that would target Chinese officials involved in human rights abuses in the far west region of Xinjiang.
Analysts believe that the blacklist could threaten trade talks between China and the U.S. government.
