13 per cent companies will leave China 'in the fairly near future': Trump

Washington: The trade war between the two biggest economies of the world hit with a new wave of tariffs because the US is due to impose a 15 per cent tariff on Chinese products from September 1.

The United States President Donald Trump on Friday said that 13 per cent of the companies are going to leave China in near future as new tariffs are all set to kick in.

After coming to power, Donald Trump has levied heavy tariffs on import of Chinese items, which result in a trade war between US-China.

So far, US have imposed tariffs of around USD 250 billion on Chinese goods, while Beijing has reciprocate with tariffs of USD 110 billion on US goods.

"It's a bad situation they (Chinese) have put themselves in. And I just saw — it came over the wires — that 13 per cent of certain companies are going to be leaving China in the not-too-distant future. That's a big thing," Trump told reporters at the White House.

"Thirteen per cent of the companies will be leaving China in the fairly near future. And I'm not surprised to hear that. I think it's going to be much higher. Because they cannot compete with the tariffs. They can't compete," Trump said in response to a question.

A fresh set of tariffs are set to be imposed on Chinese products on September 1. 

The US President said, "They're on. We've taken in billions and billions of dollars from those tariffs. As it's starting to come out, if you look at the Chinese government what they've done with tariffs is very interesting. They've devalued their currency so much, which hurts them ultimately. It costs them much more to buy things outside of China."

In spite of the Chinese tariffs, the US is not going to pay more and instead, it has taken in tens of billions of dollars, he added.

Trump said, "I gave farmers USD 16 billion, which makes them totally whole on China. That's what China spends in a good year. I gave the farmers — because they were targeted. The farmers were targeted by China."

Trump also stated that framer are very happy with this move and want him to continue with the fight.

"They want me to win the fight. And we're going to win the fight," he said, adding that the administration is continuing to have conversations with China.

"Meetings are scheduled. Calls are being made. I guess the meeting in September continues to be on. It hasn't been cancelled. And we'll see what happens," the US president said.

At the same time, China has lost a lot of companies, he said.

"A lot of companies have left China and a lot more are leaving. And they are not doing well. They are having the worst year they've had, I understand, in 61 years. That's a lot of years," Trump said

On US-China trade war, he said, the levy of import duty on Chinese items has put the US in an incredible negotiating position.

"I say that to China directly. And it's only going to get worse for China. But I say it to China directly. Because of the tariffs, we're in an incredible negotiating position, and we happen to be taking in billions and billions and billions of dollars. And we haven't taken in 10 cents from China," he said.

(With agency inputs)