Tag: China

Tariffs on China Don’t Cover the Costs of Trump’s Trade War

Washington Post logoWASHINGTON — President Trump on Monday portrayed America as being on the winning end of his trade war, saying tariffs are punishing China’s economy while generating billions of dollars for the United States, an economic victory that will allow him to continue his fight without domestic harm.

“We’ve taken in tens of billions of dollars in tariffs from China,” Mr. Trump told reporters during a “Made in America” product event at the White House. While China has taken $16 billion “off the table” by stopping its purchases of American agriculture, he said, the United States has “taken in much, much more — many times that in tariffs.”

But government figures show that the revenue the United States has collected from tariffs on $250 billion worth of Chinese goods is not enough to cover the cost of the president’s bailout for farmers, let alone compensate the many other industries hurt by trade tensions. The longer Mr. Trump’s dispute with China drags on, the more difficult it could be for him to ignore that gap.

View the complete July 15 article by Ana Swanson and Jim Tankersley on The New York Times website here.

Trump ready for tariff truce with China

The U.S. and China have tentatively agreed to another truce in their trade war in order to resume talks aimed at resolving the dispute, sources familiar with the situation said.

Details of the agreement are being laid out in press releases in advance of the meeting between Chinese President Xi Jinping and President Donald Trump at the Group of 20 Leaders Summit in Osaka, Japan, this weekend, three sources — one in Beijing and two others in Washington — said.

Such an agreement would avert the next round of tariffs on an additional $300 billion of Chinese imports, which would extend punitive tariffs to virtually all of the country’s shipments to the U.S. The Trump administration has threatened to slap duties of up to 25 percent on the remaining untaxed Chinese goods if this weekend’s talks go poorly.

View the complete June 26 article by Doug Palmer, Wendy Wu, Mark Magnier and Owen Churchill from The South China Morning Post here.

Trump Delayed Pence’s Tiananmen Square Speech in Hopes of Landing Xi Meeting

Vice President Mike Pence was set to deliver a speech criticizing China’s human rights record on June 4, the anniversary of the Tiananmen Square massacre — until Donald Trump stepped in.

The president delayed the speech to avoid upsetting Beijing ahead of a potential meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping at the Group of 20 meeting in Japan at the end of this month, according to several people familiar with the matter. Trump also put off U.S. sanctions on Chinese surveillance companies that Pence planned to preview in his remarks.

The speech was tentatively rescheduled for June 24, just days before the Osaka summit. But with Beijing signaling that Xi might not agree to a meeting, there is now debate within the administration about when Pence should deliver the speech and how hard he should be on the Chinese.

View the complete June 14 article by Jenny Leonard and Jennifer Jacobs on the Bloomberg News website here.

No, China didn’t steal our jobs. Corporate America gave them away

Trump’s trade war points the finger in the wrong direction. China behaved normally; corporate CEOs betrayed us.

China is not “stealing” American jobs.

President Trump loves to blame China for the job losses that have devastated American workers under globalization. But the truth is that Trump is blaming the wrong party. Trump’s reckless trade war against China is misguided and amounts to a colossal charade that will not solve the actual problem.

Yes, it is true that numerous American manufacturing jobs have been shipped overseas to China, thereby leaving American workers jobless and suffering. But China did not steal these jobs.

View the complete May 27 article by Cody Cain from Salon on the AlterNet website here.

In China, a flourishing industry claims to sell access to President Trump

One invitation promised a breakfast reception with the U.S. president. Another offered one-on-one photos with him. And a third claimed to “allow you to communicate with President Trump face to face and brief him on your business plans and demands.”

The offers, promoted online to wealthy entrepreneurs in China in the form of official-looking invitations, are part of a sprawling cottage industry claiming to provide intimate access to Trump, sometimes at official Republican fundraisers and often for a hefty fee.

Such solicitations, posted on Chinese social media and messaging apps, have cropped up in isolated instances since Trump took office. The Washington Post has reviewed eight that promise opportunities to interact with the president at U.S.-based events, suggesting that the practice is broader than previously known.

View the complete May 22 article by Michelle Ye Hee Lee, Anu Narayanswamy and Lyric Li on The Washington Post website here.

Dark clouds hang over Trump’s trade war

The president is heading into a reelection battle with his promise of challenging China unfulfilled.

President Donald Trump is doing everything he can to soften the economic blow of his trade battle with China, doling out billions of dollars in farmer bailouts and telling Americans that the Chinese are paying the tariffs he’s slapped on U.S. importers.

It’ll be a tough trick to execute, especially if Trump can’t cut a deal and the fight escalates to a full-scale trade war. All available evidence so far suggests it is American businesses and consumers — not the Chinese — paying Trump’s tariffs. And the farm bailout is running into political and logistical headaches.

If the president moves ahead with 25 percent tariffs on everything China exports to the United States, it could amount to a tax hike of more than $2,000 on the average American family, swamping the reduction they won from Trump’s signature legislative achievement — the 2017 tax law.

View the complete May 20 article by Ben White on the Politico website here.

The Trade War President

The Chinese haven’t blinked at Trump’s hardball trade tactics – and that’s worrying farmers, politicians and businesses.

FARMERS ARE FRUSTRATED. Automobile workers are edgy. Consumers are bracing for cost increases. And the nation poised this year to eclipse the United States as the world’s biggest consumer market is refusing to budge as the Trump administration tries to get China to play fair on trade.

This was not the sort of wartime leader most presidents expect to be. But Donald Trump, praised by his acolytes (and himself) as a master negotiator and derided by his critics as more bully than bully pulpit orator, has gotten the country in a good old-fashioned trade war. And it’s one that may produce no economic or political winner.

Lawmakers in both parties have been irritated for some time over what they see as unfair trade practices by China, where there is more state control over the economy. The United States suffers from an enormous trade deficit with China, importing such items as electronics, clothing and manufactured goods. One exception is agriculture: The U.S. exports more to China than it imports. The Trump administration and other critics have also accused China of intellectual property theft and a variety of unfair trade practices.

View the complete May 17 article by Susan Milligan on The U.S. News and World Report website here.

Trump administration cracks down on giant Chinese tech firm, escalating clash with Beijing

The Trump administration on Wednesday slapped a major Chinese firm with an extreme penalty that makes it very difficult for it to do business with any U.S. company, a dramatic escalation of the economic clash between the two nations.

The Commerce Department’s Bureau of Industry and Security said it was adding Huawei Technologies Co. Ltd. to its “Entity List,” known to some as the “death penalty.”

This listing makes it virtually impossible for companies to survive once U.S. firms are discouraged from doing business with them. The Commerce Department said it had reached this decision because Huawei “is engaged in activities that are contrary to U.S. national security or foreign policy interest.”

View the complete May 16 article by Damian Paletta, Ellen Nakashima and David Lynch on The Washington Post website here.

Trump to meet Chinese leader as trade tensions escalate

President Trump on Monday said he plans to meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin next month when world leaders gather for the Group of 20 (G-20) summit in Japan.

Trump predicted his meeting with Xi would be “very fruitful” and argued he would be negotiating from a position of strength after trade talks broke down last week between the world’s two largest economies.

“We’re in a great position right now, no matter what we do,” Trump told reporters during a meeting with Hungary’s prime minister. “Yeah, I think China wants to have it.”

View the complete May 13 article by Jordan Fabian on The Hill website here.

White House expects retaliation from China, stresses ongoing talks

The Trump administration is expecting retaliation from China after imposing a new round of steep tariffs but is stressing that negotiations are ongoing.

The U.S. and China seemed poised to reach a deal on their yearlong trade war last week until President Trump raised tariffs from 10 percent to 25 percent on $200 billion worth of Chinese imports on Friday after a breakdown of negotiations.

“The problem is two weeks ago in China, there was backtracking by the Chinese,” White House economic adviser Larry Kudlow said on “Fox News Sunday.”

View the complete May 12 article by Chris Mills Rodrigo on The Hill website here.