Trump hits China with fresh tariffs, threatens more if Beijing retaliates

U.S. president Donald Trump levied a 10% tariff on roughly $200bn of imports from China today, escalating the ongoing trade war between the world’s two largest economies.

Trump said the tariffs will begin at a level of 10 percent on September 24, and will increase to 25 percent on January 1.

President Trump has announced tariffs on a further US$200 billion (NZ$304b) of Chinese imports from next week.

Sohn said he thinks that China will retaliate against every US tariff and that the back-and-forth sparring will escalate until the United States is taxing all Chinese imports – $524 billion a year ago.

But demand for Chinese products on American soil has persisted amid rising tensions: the latest census data, released Wednesday, showed the USA goods deficit with China this year has grown about eight percent to $234 billion from the same time last year.

The administration’s proposal for the tariffs on US$200 billion (S$247 billion) of products drew protest from technology companies earlier this year, but the final list of taxed devices described by the official avoids many big consumer brand names and products. This has raised concerns that China could retaliate with non-tariff trade measures. However, because China exports more to the United States than it imports there are limits on the amount of tariffs Beijing can impose on American goods.

But China said it would turn down the offer if the United States went ahead with more tariffs, CNN said.

China will reject new trade talks if President Donald Trump moves ahead with the next round of US tariffs on Chinese products, throwing into doubt the prospect of a diplomatic breakthrough, according to two people familiar with the matter. Some companies are looking to move out of China to dodge the tariffs, said Ted Murphy, a partner at the Baker McKenzie law firm.

While there are measures China can take to retaliate, it is limited by the imbalance between its exports to the United States and its imports from the U.S., which amount to only about $US130 billion a year.

The firms are anxious the tariffs will increase their costs since many of their products are manufactured in China.

US President Donald Trump holds his signed memorandum on intellectual property tariffs on high-tech goods from China, at the White House in Washington on March 22, 2018.

When Cohn tried, using data and history, to argue against Trump’s conviction that trade deficits with other countries made the United States the loser, the book reports Trump as saying: “I know I’m right”.

In fact, tariffs are taxes that are paid by Americans who import goods from overseas. These tariffs are on top of current duties on bike imports.

The taxes will take effect from 24 September, starting at 10% and increasing to 25% from the start of next year unless the two countries agree a deal.

The BBC’s Asia business correspondent Karishma Vaswani said the escalating trade war between the two countries is in part due to a lack of understanding of the other’s position. The price of washing machines in the U.S.

“Most of our member companies are “in China, for China” – selling goods to Chinese companies and consumers, not to Americans – and thus ultimately boosting the USA economy”, Jarrett said.

“Attempts to help those hurt by globalisation via higher tariffs or other forms of protectionism, even if well-meaning, will raise prices and hurt all consumers, especially poor and middle-class families”, said economist Satyam Panday of S&P Global Ratings.

The short time frame before the tariffs take effect means that suppliers will face an unexpected 10 percent charge on imports that are already in transit but arrive after next Sunday.

“Investors are slowly starting to realise that these new tariffs could be extremely disruptive to the supply chain”, said Art Hogan, chief market strategist at B. Riley FBR in NY.

The tough talk and fear of more tariffs and retaliation rattled investors and sent indexes dropping.

He also threatened punitive action against nations that won’t deal fairly with Washington. “And they can’t take actions that entirely flout the rules of the worldwide trading system”, the official said.