Trump aides wanted $30 bn annual tariffs on China: POTUS made it $60 bn

United States President Donald Trump is preparing to impose a package of $60 billion in annual tariffs against China, following through on a long-time threat, which according to him will punish China for intellectual property infringement and help create more American jobs.

The tariff package, which Trump plans to unveil by Friday, was confirmed by four senior administration officials.

According to The Washington Post, senior aides had presented Trump with a $30 billion tariff package that would apply to a range of products.

But Trump directed them to roughly double the scope of the new trade levies.

The package could be applied to more than 100 products, which Trump argued were developed by using trade secrets the Chinese stole from the US companies or forced them to hand over in exchange for market access.

Dow extends losses, down over 300 pts, as trade war fears hurt industrials

The Dow industrials fell more than 300 points on Friday on mounting fears of a global trade war following President Donald Trump's promise to impose import tariffs on steel and aluminum.

Europe promised to act firmly and China said it would defend its interests appropriately if Trump followed through with his pledge of imposing tariffs of 25 percent on imported steel and 10 percent on aluminum.

The blue-chip index turned negative for the year following the news and is now down 1.4 percent for the period.

Boeing's 3.8 percent fall weighed the most on the index as worries about higher costs troubled investors.