Decision on China tariffs may not come on Friday, White House's Kudlow says

A decision on whether to impose a third round of tariffs on Chinese made goods might not come on Friday, a top official from the Trump administration appeared to indicate.

In an interview with Bloomberg TV, the Director of the National Economic Council, Larry Kudlow, said: "The president himself, we will evaluate the comments and we will make a decision regarding the $200bn. We'll make a decision on the volume, on the rate, on the timing, I don't want to get ahead of that curve, it's out there."

The NEC director was alluding to the end of the public comment period on the proposed tariffs on another $200.0bn-worth of Chinese goods on Thursday.

Kudlow also said there was "constant communication" between China and the US, pointing to upcoming meetings at the United Nations and of G-20 countries in Argentina, in the fall, as possible venues where both leaders might be able to talk.

President Trump was always open to talking, he said, but his determination to fix a broker trading system should not be underestimated.

That was followed by another interview, on Friday, with CNBC, in which Kudlow said America was not trying to "put the Chinese out of business".

The administration's aim, he said, was for Beijing to respect global norms for the first time in 20 odd years.

"[We want] zero tariffs, zero non-tariff barriers, zero subsidies, stop the IP theft, stop the technology transfer, allow Americans to own their own companies," he said.

Kudlow did tell CNBC that the Trump administration was still talking with China about a number of trade issues, but so far, China had not met U.S. requests.

"Those have been our asks for many months and so far those asks have not been satisfied. However hope springs eternal," he added.

On the European Union, Kudlow said negotiations were ongoing and that the US Trade Representative, Robert Lighthizer, would be travelling to Europe during the following week, adding that he was "mildly optimistic".

Talks were underway in several areas, Kudlow said, including things like soybeans, beef, natural gas, and perhaps military sales.