US president Donald Trump prepared to impose tariffs on China after G20 summit

United States (US) president Donald Trump is ready to impose another round of tariffs on Chinese goods if he can't make progress on the trade talks with China’s president Xi Jinping at the upcoming Group of 20 (G20) summit, the US leader said on Monday.

As the trade tensions between the US and China soured in May, investors have been trading cautiously over the past few weeks as they wait for signs of positive developments between Mr Trump and Mr Xi. Observers have been banking on some progress at the G20 summit on June 28 and 29 as both leaders will be crossing paths there for the annual conference.

‘We are scheduled to talk and to meet. I think interesting things will happen. Let's see what happens,’ Mr Trump told reporters at the White House on Monday.

China, however, has not confirmed if its leader has plans to meet the US president at the summit.

On Monday, China’s foreign ministry said that the country is open to more trade talks with Washington, but it did not announce plans on a possible meeting.

Last week, the US president said he will decide if he wants to impose additional tariffs on at least US$300 billion worth of Chinese goods after the summit in Osaka.

Currently, the world-largest economy has slapped 25% of tariffs on US$250 billion worth of Chinese goods. Beijing has retaliated with tariff hikes on US$60 billion in US goods.

With the latest tariff hike from China, it meant that Beijing is backing out of major parts of a developing trade agreement, the White House had previously said.

In an interview with Fox News Channel last month, Chinese ambassador to the US Cui Tiankai said that Beijing is ready to further its trade talks with Washington, but he had blamed the US’ side for frequently ‘changing its mind’ on the US-China trade deal, which caused the deal to sour.