White House moves to finalize China trade sanctions

WASHINGTON: The White House said Tuesday the planned trade sanctions against China announced in March were still in the works and details would be announced in the coming month.

Despite announcing a truce in the trade hostilities, after Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said threatened tariffs on Chinese goods were "on hold," the White House signaled it was ready to pull the trigger on a broad array of penalties.

"From now on, we expect trading relationships to be fair and to be reciprocal," President Donald Trump said in a statement, which spelled out a list of long-standing US trade grievances.

The announcement offered little new information, but came on the heels of stiff criticism from lawmakers of the White House's negotiating tactics and willingness to soften tough penalties in some cases with no benefit to the US.

The statement also came as Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross is preparing to travel to Beijing this week for another round of talks aimed at resolving the conflict, which includes a threat of matching sanctions from China on US goods.

The US trade sanctions announced in March -- including restrictions on Chinese investment, export controls and 25 percent tariffs on as much as $50 billion in Chinese tech goods -- remain under development, the White House said.

The final list of Chinese imports covered by the tariffs list will be announced June 15, and imposed shortly thereafter, while the proposed investment restrictions and enhanced export controls will be announced by June 30, according to the statement.

In addition, as part of the ongoing talks "the United States will request that China remove all of its many trade barriers, including non-monetary trade barriers, which make it both difficult and unfair to do business there."

Trump has faced a backlash among lawmakers this month after announcing he would soften US sanctions on the Chinese telecoms equipment maker ZTE, which neared collapse due to an April ban on purchasing crucial US components.

Lawmakers in both parties also criticized the president, saying this month's truce surrendered Washington's leverage without obtaining significant concessions from Beijing.