President Donald Trump in the coming weeks is planning to take aggressive trade steps, including tough restrictions against China, to combat alleged unfair trade practices, Politico reports.
The president will likely use his State of the Union address at the end of the month to discuss his vision, according to administration officials who spoke with Politico, and is reportedly expected to meet with administration officials before then to discuss imposing new tariffs and additional measures on various competitors.
Trump last year said Americans would no longer “turn a blind eye” to trade abuses and sharply rebuked China for trade practices he says have put Americans out of work.
"From this day forward we will compete on a fair and equal basis," Trump told a gathering of CEOs on the sidelines of the annual Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in Vietnam in late November. "We are not going to let the United States be taken advantage of anymore. I am always going to put America first."
China is the United States' largest trading partner and last year, goods and services between the two nations totaled $648.2 billion.
Earlier in November, the president told a gathering of business leaders in Tokyo that Japan has an unfair advantage on trade and that he intended to fix the imbalance.
Trump’s administration has already withdrawn from the Trans-Pacific Partnership, and has threatened to pull out of the North American Free Trade Agreement.
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