Washington: US President Donald Trump said that China might soon begin giving the death penalty to people who make and send fentanyl into the United States. He claimed that the US and China are working on a deal to take strict action against fentanyl traffickers.
"I have a very good relationship with President Xi (Jinping) of China, but I imposed a 20% tariff on China because of the fentanyl. And I call it a penalty. It's a penalty because China delivers much of the fentanyl. Some people would say all of it. They deliver it into Mexico and even into our own country," Trump said.
Trump said that the tariff is meant to make up for the damage caused by the drug. He added, "We have a 20 per cent (tariff), so they pay billions of dollars and billions of dollars in damages for what they've done. And I think we're going to work it out so that China is going to end up going from that to giving the death penalty to the people that create this fentanyl and send it into our country, whether it's through other countries or directly."
He also said he believed this kind of agreement should have been made years ago. "I believe that we would have had that deal a long time ago. I shook hands with them, and then we had a rigged election, and we had somebody else come in, and they didn't know anything about a deal for the death penalty," Trump said.
