Tag: Trump tariffs

How Trump’s latest China tariffs could squeeze US consumers

WASHINGTON (AP) — The latest tariffs President Donald Trump plans to impose on Chinese goods would cost U.S. households an average of $200 a year, some economists estimate, and would start to bite consumers and retailers just as the holiday shopping season begins.

That cost would come on top of the roughly $830 cost imposed per household from Trump’s existing tariffs, according to a New York Federal Reserve analysis.

Trump plans to tax $300 billion of Chinese imports at 10% starting in September with the goal of accelerating trade talks with Beijing to favor the United States. The new tariffs would be in addition to 25% tariffs Trump has imposed on $250 billion in Chinese products. Those are mostly industrial goods. By contrast, the new tariffs would target products used by American consumers, like shoes, clothing and cellphones.

By Friday, Trump’s new planned tariffs had triggered worries, especially among retailers, about the consequences. Retail stores, many of which have been struggling, would have to make the painful choice of either absorbing the higher costs from the new tariffs or imposing them on price-conscious customers.

View the complete August 2 article by Josh Boak, Anne D’Innocenzio and Joe McDonald on the Associated Press website here.

China Reacts to Trade Tariffs and Hong Kong Protests by Blaming U.S.

New York Times logoWASHINGTON — President Trump, frustrated by increasingly fruitless negotiations with China, said Thursday that the United States would impose a 10 percent tariff on an additional $300 billion worth of Chinese imports next month, a significant escalation in a trade war that has dragged on for more than a year.

The new tariff would come on top of the 25 percent levy that Mr. Trump has already imposed on $250 billion worth of Chinese imports, resulting in the United States taxing nearly everything China sends to the United States, from iPhones to New Balance sneakers to children’s books.

Mr. Trump had agreed in June not to impose more tariffs after meeting with the Chinese president, Xi Jinping, and agreeing to restart trade talks. But Mr. Trump said he was moving ahead with the levies as of Sept. 1 as punishment for China’s failure to live up to its commitments, including buying more American agricultural products and stemming the flow of fentanyl into the United States.

View the complete August 1 article by Alan Rappeport on The New York Times website here.

American farmer: Trump trade war ‘took away all our markets’

AlterNet logoDefenders of President Donald Trump’s trade war with China have insisted that American farmers will be better off in the longrun, and the White House recently announced it would be giving farmers an additional $16 billion in aid to help them cope with the trade war’s effects. But in a report for Yahoo Finance this week, journalist Adriana Belmonte stresses that American farmers have a problem that farm aid isn’t going to cure: they’re lost their markets.

China, Belmonte notes, purchased a lot of American farm products in the past, from wheat to soybeans. In 2016 and 2017, for example, China imported 61 million bushels of wheat from the United States. But thanks to the trade war, Belmonte reports, China is importing from other countries instead, including wheat from Russia and soybeans from Brazil.

Bob Kuylen, a North Dakota wheat farmer, told Yahoo Finance, “This trade thing is what’s brought on by the president, and it’s really frustrating because he took away all of our markets. We live in an area where we’re kind of in the middle of nowhere. It costs us a lot of money: over $1 a bushel to get our grain to markets.”

View the complete August 1 article by Alex Henderson on the AlterNet website here.

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.

Best Buy says expanded tariffs would cost consumers

Company official says that added costs will be passed on immediately to the customer.

WASHINGTON – Best Buy Inc. warned Monday that a Trump administration threat to tax all Chinese-made consumer electronics up to 25% “could be immediately passed on to U.S. consumers.”

Jason Bonfig, Best Buy’s chief merchandising officer, said in testimony to the U.S. trade representative (USTR) that companies are running out of inventory purchased at pre-tariff prices and can no longer absorb cost increases to Chinese-made consumer electronics critical to their businesses.

Bonfig was among speakers on the first of six days of pleas by more than 300 American companies and business organizations from a variety of sectors. The presenters are part of a last-ditch push by America’s business community to stop a trade war between the world’s two biggest economies.

View the complete June 17 article by Jim Spencer on The Star Tribune website here.

How Trump’s Tariffs May Kill The Economy

Donald Trump tweeted in May that by imposing a 25 percent tariff on $250 billion of Chinese goods “China would greatly slow down, and we would automatically speed up!”

But that’s not what’s happening, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) reported today. Economic growth is easing in developed countries with one big exception – China.

In a report released today, the OECD provided four revealing graphics covering the United States, the 32 OECD countries from New Zealand to Austria, the Eurozone which uses a common currency and China.

View the complete June 16 article by David Cay Johnston of D.C. Memo on the National Memo here.

Photographer reveals part of Trump’s ‘secret’ agreement with Mexico with a close-up shot

Since calling off his threat of tariffs against Mexico on Friday, President Donald Trump has claimed that he won massive concessions from the country in line with its demands that it reduce the Central American immigration. While the agreement he has announced has been widely panned as old news — an apparent attempt by Trump to save face after backing down from a reckless threat — the president has insisted that there is another, secret deal that’s even more significant.

He made this claim once again on Tuesday in front of reporters, even waving a piece of paper supposedly containing the details of the agreement.

“That’s the agreement that everybody says I don’t have,” Trump said.

View the complete June 11 article by Cody Fenwick on the AlterNet website here.

Mexico crisis shows the limits of Trump’s brinkmanship

The president’s negotiating style has settled into a familiar — and increasingly ineffective — pattern.

You might say it’s The Art of the Deal.

First, spark a crisis by threatening harsh consequences if hazy, unspecified demands aren’t met.

Then, torque the suspense as an artificial deadline approaches, while nervous observers warn of the dire consequences of going over the cliff.

View the complete June 8 article by Eliana Johnson and Nancy Cook on the Politico website here.

Trump’s Tariffs Could Nullify Tax Cut, Clouding Economic Picture

WASHINGTON — President Trump’s tax cuts provided a temporary jolt to the United States economy by putting more money into taxpayers’ pockets. The tariffs that Mr. Trump has grown so fond of may have the opposite effect.

Two new analyses show that the tariffs Mr. Trump is using to punish China, Mexico, Europe and other governments would more than wipe out any gains from his $1.5 trillion tax cut for low- and middle-income earners, leaving them with less money to spend into a consumer-driven economy. Higher earners would fare only slightly better, with their tax gains significantly eroded but not entirely washed away.

The potential for Mr. Trump’s tariffs to nullify his signature tax cut shows how the president’s trade war could undermine his biggest selling point going into his 2020 re-election campaign: a strong economy.

View the complete June 3 article by Jim Tankersley on The New York Times website here.

Trump: ‘Foolish’ for GOP to try to stop tariffs on Mexico

President Trump on Tuesday insisted he will follow through with new tariffs on Mexico if it does not do more to curb illegal migration and said it would be “foolish” for congressional Republicans to try and stop him.

“We are going to see if we can do something, but I think it’s more likely that the tariffs go on,” Trump said during a joint press conference with British Prime Minister Theresa May.

Addressing deliberations by Republicans on a measure that could limit his tariff power, Trump said, “I don’t think they will do that. I think if they do, it’s foolish.”

View the complete June 4 article by Jordan Fabian on The Hill website here.