Trump Says U.S. Will Hit China With More Tariffs

WASHINGTON — President Trump, frustrated by increasingly fruitless negotiations with China, said the United States would impose a 10 percent tariff on an additional $300 billion worth of Chinese imports next month, a significant escalation in a trade war that has dragged on for more than a year.

Mr. Trump had agreed in June not to impose more tariffs after meeting with the Chinese president, Xi Jinping, and agreeing to restart trade talks. But the president said he was moving ahead with the levies as of Sept. 1 as punishment for China’s failure to buy more American agricultural products and stem the flow of fentanyl into the United States, as it had promised.

The new tariff would be in addition to the 25 percent levies that Mr. Trump has already imposed on $250 billion of Chinese imports and would result in the United States taxing nearly every Chinese product sent to America, from toys to televisions to tires.

Mr. Trump’s move, which will most likely be met with reciprocal punishment by China, increases the likelihood that the world’s two largest economies will be locked in a protracted trade dispute for months, if not years. While both sides continue to negotiate, the United States has insisted that China buy more farm goods and agree to cement certain changes into Chinese law. Beijing has insisted it will only enter into a trade deal that carries benefits for both sides and seems increasingly confident it can wait out the trade war indefinitely.