- President Donald Trump's trade war kicked up another notch on Thursday with new tariffs on another $16 billion worth of Chinese goods.
- The new tariffs come as the US and China continue negotiations in Washington - their first talks since June.
- But according to a senior administration official, the Americans aren't seeing much progress in the talks.
The trade war between the US and China took another step forward Thursday, and the chances of a resolution still appear far away.
At midnight, the US imposed a 25% tariff on $16 billion worth of Chinese goods coming into the US - and China responded in kind. That brings the total among of goods flowing between the countries subject to tariffs up to $106 billion, or roughly 17% of all US-China trade.
At the same time, a senior Trump administration official talked down the chances for substantial progress in the current round of US-China trade talks.
"In order for us to get a positive result out of these engagements, it's really critical that they address the fundamental concerns that we have raised," the administration official said on a call with reporters. "We haven't seen that yet, but we are going to continue to encourage them to address problems that we have raised."
The negotiations between the two countries are the first formal talks since June, when Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross went to Beijing.
The Trump administration is hoping to force China to make major adjustments to its economic policies, including lowering existing tariffs and curtailing the alleged theft of US intellectual property by Chinese firms. In addition, Trump wants to slash the large US trade deficit with China.
Given the large scale goals, the senior administration official downplayed any possibility of a formal announcement coming out of the talks, which are scheduled to wrap up Thursday.
"We hope that they will take seriously the concerns raised and that can put us on a better posture, both with respect to the issues that have been raised but also with the broader trade relationship," the official said.
Trade experts weren't putting too much stock in the meeting, but the lack of progress cements expectations that the trade war's end is nowhere in sight.
The US Trade Representative's office is moving forward with another set of tariffs on $200 billion worth of Chinese goods, and according to reports Trump wants to dig in and extract more concessions from the Chinese.
The longer the fight continues, the more likely that the US economy and businesses get hurt. American firms have reported increased prices due to the tariffs, forcing them to make hard choices such as delaying expansion plans or laying off workers.