Tag: China

Trump’s latest round of tariffs will hit US consumers hard

Experts say Americans — who have been footing the bill for the president’s trade war — will be hit even harder this time around.

President Donald Trump’s latest round of tariffs went into effect Friday morning, targeting $200 billion worth of Chinese imports and raising duties from 10% to 25%.

Already, China has responded, expressing “deep regret over the development” and promising to enact “necessary countermeasures.”

Experts say the hike will likely hit American consumers harder this time around than in the past.

View the complete May 10 article by Melanie Schmitz on the ThinkProgress website here.

China warns of ‘countermeasures’ against U.S. products if Trump increases tariffs

BEIJING — China warned Wednesday of retaliation if President Trump goes through with his threat to further raise tariffs on Chinese goods, setting up a potential escalation in a trade war that had seemed just weeks ago to be nearing its end.

The trans-Pacific brinkmanship now spills over to face-to-face negotiations as trade talks resume late Thursday in Washington — just hours before Trump’s latest tariff threats are due to hit $200 billion in Chinese products.

The Chinese warning — issued as China’s vice premier arrived in Washington — signaled that Beijing was prepared to take the same hard-line route as Trump and raise tariffs on American products in response.

View the complete May 8 article by Anna Fifield and David J.Lynch on The Washington Post website here.

Explainer: Who pays Trump’s tariffs – China and other exporters or U.S. customers?

CHICAGO (Reuters) – U.S. President Donald Trump said on Sunday he would raise tariffs to 25 percent from 10 percent on $200 billion of Chinese goods.

The United States has levied tariffs on a total of $250 billion of Chinese imports, global steel and aluminum imports, and shipments of washing machines and solar panels since January 2018, when Trump’s administration levied its first trade tariffs.

Trump has referred to himself as a “Tariff Man” and says the duties he has imposed on a range of goods and metal imports are filling up state coffers.

View the complete May 5 article by Rajesh Kumar Sing with additonal reporting by Yawen Chen on the Reuters website here.

Trump Threatens China With More Tariffs Ahead of Final Trade Talks

WASHINGTON — President Trump, emboldened by a strong American economy and wary of criticism that an evolving trade deal with China would not adequately benefit the United States, threatened on Sunday to impose more punishing tariffs on Chinese goods in an attempt to force additional concessions in a final agreement.

Mr. Trump, in a tweet, warned that he would increase tariffs on $200 billion in Chinese goods at the end of this week and “shortly” impose levies on hundreds of billions of dollars of additional imports. Dozens of high-level Chinese officials are arriving in Washington this week for what was expected to be a final round of negotiations toward a trade agreement, at least in principle.

Mr. Trump’s threat caught Chinese officials by surprise. On Monday morning in Beijing, they were trying to decide whether Vice Premier Liu He should go ahead with his visit later this week to Washington, said people familiar with the talks who insisted on anonymity because they were not authorized to comment publicly on the negotiations.

View the complete May 5 article by Ana Swanson and Keith Bradsher on The New York Times website here.

Scoop: Chinese block visit of Trump confidant

China recently declined to issue a visa to Michael Pillsbury, an informal adviser to President Trump on China policy, in an unusual move that comes as the Trump administration steps up its scrutiny of Chinese experts attempting to travel to the U.S.

Why it matters: Trump has praised Pillsbury, a hawkish former Pentagon official and author, as “the leading authority on China.” Pillsbury regularly discusses China with Trump, including during an Oval Office meeting about a month ago. Pillsbury told Axios he has visited China over 50 times since the 1970s and this is the first time his visa request hasn’t been approved.

How it happened: Pillsbury was due to participate in a conference in Beijing last Sunday hosted by the Center for China and Globalization. He was also invited to an event at the U.S. Embassy in Beijing hosted by Ambassador Terry Branstad.

View the complete April 18 article by Jonathan Swan and Dave Lawler on the Axios website here.

Mnuchin’s Hollywood Ties Raise Ethical Questions in China Talks

WASHINGTON — “Wonder Woman,” the 2017 film that Steven Mnuchin helped produce before becoming Treasury secretary, hauled in about $90 million at the box office in China. It was the film’s most successful international market and a roaring success for an American superhero export. But because of China’s strict laws for foreign films, the studio behind the movie, Warner Bros., received just a small fraction of those revenues.

Now, as Treasury secretary and one of the lead negotiators in trade talks with China, Mr. Mnuchin has been personally pushing Beijing to give the American film industry greater access to its markets — a change that could be highly lucrative to his former industry. While Mr. Mnuchin divested from his Hollywood film production company after joining the Trump administration, he maintains ties to the industry through his wife, the actress and filmmaker Louise Linton.

In 2017, Mr. Mnuchin sold his interest in the company, StormChaser Partners, to Ms. Linton, who at the time was his fiancée. In his 2018 disclosure, which was obtained from the Treasury Department through a records request by The New York Times, StormChaser is listed as one of Ms. Linton’s assets.

View the complete March 14 article by Alan Rappeport and Ana Swanson on The New York Times website here.

Gary Cohn says Trump is ‘desperate’ for trade deal with China

Gary Cohn, President Trump’s former top economic adviser, says the president is “desperate” to reach a trade deal with China and is being ill-served by protectionist advisers who have left the White House “living in chaos” on major decisions.

“The president needs a win,” Cohn said in an interview with Freakonomics, a public radio show and podcast.

Trump expects a China deal to boost the stock market, which has treaded water for the past year, the former aide said. Cohn cast doubt on the president’s ability to obtain fundamental changes in China’s state-led economic system, one of his core negotiating objectives.

View the complete March 13 article by David J. Lynch on The Washington Post website here.

The Unintended Consequences of Trump’s Tariffs

Tariffs haven’t done much to shrink the U.S. trade deficit, and experts are warning about collateral damage.

President Donald Trump‘s ongoing effort to rewrite America’s role in several long-standing trade agreements appears to have done little to rein in the country’s ballooning trade deficit last year, as America’s goods imbalance clocked in at a record $891.2 billion.

Economists broadly agree that the trade deficit isn’t a particularly accurate indicator of economic health – and, in fact, many have argued that the deficit climbed in part last year because the U.S. performed so admirably in the face of global economic malaise. Continue reading “The Unintended Consequences of Trump’s Tariffs”

Fact Checker: Trump’s repeated claim that China is paying ‘billions’ in tariffs to the Treasury

President Trump claims the Treasury Department has received billions and billions of dollars of revenue from import tariffs. (Joy Yi/The Washington Post)

“Billions of Dollars are being paid to the United States by China in the form of Trade Tariffs!”

— President Trump, in a tweet, Feb. 16, 2019

“The tariffs are bringing a tremendous amount of money to our Treasury.”

— Trump, in remarks to the Cabinet, Feb. 12

“Those tariffs are costing them a lot of money, and they’re going into our Treasury; remember that, we’re filling up with billions of dollars.”

— Trump, at a campaign rally in El Paso, Feb. 11

It’s become one of the president’s favorite talking points. But it’s wrong on many levels.

Continue reading “Fact Checker: Trump’s repeated claim that China is paying ‘billions’ in tariffs to the Treasury”

US markets plunge after arrest of Chinese tech executive

The Dow Jones industrial average plunged more than 500 points on Thursday, the first day of trading after U.S. authorities secured the arrest of a Chinese technology company executive, fueling fears that the trade war with China is heating up.

News broke late Wednesday that Canadian law enforcement had arrested Meng Wanzhou, chief financial officer of Huawei Technologies, a major Chinese tech firm that has been linked to the Chinese military.

U.S. officials have requested her extradition, citing a suspected sanctions violation.

View the complete December 6 article by Alexander Bolton on The Hill website here.