REUTERS/Leah Millis
President Donald Trump has signed an executive memorandum imposing about $60 billion in tariffs against China for “stealing American companies' intellectual property,” according to CNBC. “It would be about $60 billion, but that's really just a fraction of what we’re talking about,” Trump said Thursday. The White House claims that a “Section 301 investigation in August” and an “inter-agency process...determined that China engages in unfair trade practices including forced technology transfers, strategic acquisitions of U.S. Intellectual property and cyber intrusions,” Bloomberg reported. “This has been long in the making,” Trump said in remarks. “We've lost, over a fairly short period of time 60,000 factories.” Trump also stated that he views China “as a friend,” but said their trade surplus with the U.S. was “out of control.” The Chinese Embassy responded Thursday afternoon, calling the tariffs “typical unilateral trade protectionist action,” that were a “self-defeating” measure for the U.S. They also stated that “China is not afraid of and will not recoil from a trade war.” This comes after Trump reportedly pushed for larger tariffs against China earlier this week.