Donald Trump to unveil trade sanctions against China

US President Donald Trump is likely to unveil sanctions against China tomorrow, the White House hinted on Thursday.

The officials from the US Trade Representatives (USTR) said the US has solid proof of Beijing violating its commitments on property and technology-based transfers.

"Tomorrow the president will announce the actions he has decided to take based on USTR's 301 investigations into China's state-led, market-distorting efforts to force, pressure and steal US technologies and intellectual property," White House Principal Deputy Press Secretary Raj Shah said on Thursday.

The administration is disappointed by the responses the United States has been getting from China. "We have strong evidence against China. These are deeply concerning to the administration and raise severe questions about China and its commitment to market-oriented practices that they promised to engage in," said the official.

The USTR scanned into four types of allegations: charges that China is putting pressure on companies to enter into joint ventures where they would transfer their technology to a Chinese company; US companies do not have the same technology to license their IP as a Chinese company.

"It's difficult to use the WTO that involves the informal pressure stakeholders have complained about. The idea that you can take this to the WTO isn't practical. To the extent we can get at these things at the WTO, we will do so. We're pursuing a number of cases against them right now. We'll use it where we can but we can't use it to address everything," the official said.

The administration disagrees on the fact that China’s commitments have been completed. "All of us need to be aware of the history. It does raise a question about the history of the dialogue. That is something policymakers will have to take into account. The administration has been clear that China presents unique challenges," the official said.

The US and China’s trade deficit stand on a humongous $500 billion. President Trump is looking to reduce the trade deficit and has been emphasising on the its importance since the very beginning of this presidential campaign.

Donald Trump thinks the trade deficit is against America’s national security interest, killing jobs in US and hurting its economy.