United States Secretary of State Michael R. Pompeo has said that the US would emerge victorious in the ongoing trade war against China.
"The trade war by China against the United States has been going on for years. Here's what's different in this administration. To the extent one wants to call this a trade war, we are determined to win it," Pompeo said in an interview with Fox News.
The tensions between the two countries have escalated after China withdrew from the scheduled trade talks with the US earlier this week.
On Monday, US President Donald Trump imposed a fresh 10 per cent tariffs on Chinese products amounting to USD 200 billion. The tariffs are set to come into effect from September 24 with the 10 per cent level, which will be increased to 25 per cent from next year. It will affect thousands of Chinese goods, including food seasonings, network routers, baseball gloves and industrial machinery parts.
In retaliation, China slapped tariffs on USD 60 billion of American products and its state council announced that the new tariffs would be imposed at rates of 5 per cent or 10 per cent, depending upon the product from the same date.
Pompeo said that though President Trump is "very much likes" his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping, the former would press policies that "the American workers deserve."
"We're going to get an outcome which forces China to behave in a way that if you want to be a power -- a global power transparency, rule of law -- you don't steal intellectual property -- the fundamental principles of trade around the world: fairness, reciprocity. Those are the things President Trump has told his counterpart there, who he very much likes. Those are the things the American people are demanding and the American workers deserve," he said.
Pompeo's comments come ahead of President Trump's visit to New York for key meetings with other world leaders at the 73rd United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) session.
Discussions on Iran and North Korea were expected to dominate at the UNGA. Pompeo in the interview said that the US wants Iran to stop being the world's largest state sponsor of terror.
"We want Iran to stop being the large -- world's largest state sponsor of terror, but make no mistake about it: there's no indication that they have any intent of doing this. Just this past couple of weeks, they've come after American interests inside of Iraq, in Basra, and in Baghdad," he said.
Referring to the tweets by Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif who blamed the recent Ahvaz attack, which killed 24, on regional countries and their "U.S. masters", Pompeo said that blaming other countries for the security incident in your country is an "enormous mistake."
"And the loss of innocent life is tragic, and I wish Zarif would focus on keeping his own people secure rather than causing insecurity all around the world," he added.
In May, US President Trump withdrew Washington from the Iran nuclear pact, escalating the tension between the two countries.
Trump administration had announced withdrawal from the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) or the Iran nuclear deal that limited Tehran's uranium enrichment in exchange for relief from some sanctions.
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