Tag: Trump trade policy

News Analysis: In ramping up trade war with China, Trump could be playing with fire

WASHINGTON — Shortly before igniting a new round in his trade war with China, President Trump last week accused Beijing of trying to stall talks until after the 2020 election in hopes of negotiating a better deal with a Democrat in the White House.

But Trump has strong incentives to drag out the fight: Behind a relatively strong U.S. economy and at least the chance of more credit stimulus from the Federal Reserve, he may benefit politically from continuing the confrontation with Beijing because it’s red meat for his political base.

The potential loser in this international game of chicken is the U.S. economy. Both long term and short term, the White House is playing with fire — and it could end up burning Trump’s reelection bid.

View the complete August 6 article by Don Lee on The Los Angeles Times website here.

Donald Trump’s Trade War with China is Spiraling Out of Control

History tells us that big movements in financial markets are difficult to predict, but when they come they happen very quickly. That is what we have seen over the past several days, as investors around the world have responded to a sudden escalation in the trade war between the world’s two largest economies, the United States and China, and the growing realization that at least one of these economies is being led by someone who doesn’t appear to understand the risks he is taking.

After posting their biggest decline of the year on Monday—a slide of three per cent—U.S. stocks rebounded somewhat on Tuesday morning. The modest rebound came after the the Chinese central bank signalled that, for now at least, it wouldn’t allow another decline in the value of the Chinese currency, the yuan. Monday’s big fall on Wall Street came after the yuan fell almost two per cent on that day, and Chinese officials suggested that the decline was a response to President Trump’s decision, last week, to broaden tariffs on Chinese goods. In a further escalation, the Trump Administration announced, on Monday evening, that it was designating China as a currency manipulator, a move that Trump signalled on Twitter by accusing the Chinese government of “trying to steal our businesses and factories.” (A lower value of the yuan makes Chinese exports more competitive.) Continue reading “Donald Trump’s Trade War with China is Spiraling Out of Control”

Trump backpedals on China threats as trade deal shows signs of slipping away

Washington Post logoPresident Trump said Tuesday that a new trade deal with China might not come until after the 2020 elections, a significant departure from more than a year of trying to exert pressure on the world’s second-largest economy.

His comments were the latest in rapidly evolving and sometimes contradictory strategic shifts. Less than two months ago, he announced that a huge crackdown against China was imminent. On Tuesday, he suggested that further action could be more than a year away, and everything could change based on whether he is reelected.

In several Twitter posts, Trump accused China of delaying negotiations, which began in earnest last December. Even as Trump’s chief trade advisers resumed talks in Shanghai, the president’s tweets suggested a deal may be further away than it had seemed in recent months.

View the complete July 30 article by Taylor Telford, Damian Paletta and David J. Lynch on The Washington Post 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.

Paul Krugman: Trump’s reckless tariff war is driving America into something far worse than the Great Depression

In a column for the New York Times, Nobel Prize-winning economist Paul Krugman claimed that an unfettered Donald Trump is setting the stage for  a second Great Depression — only this one will be much worse.

Noting that Trump’s plan to slam Mexico with tariffs “will reduce the living standards of most Americans, destroy many jobs in U.S. manufacturing, and hurt farmers,” Krugman said that is the least of our problems.

“Trump says that ‘TARIFF is a beautiful word indeed,’ but the actual history of U.S. tariffs isn’t pretty — and not just because tariffs, whatever the tweeter in chief says, are in practice taxes on Americans, not foreigners. In fact, it’s now a good bet that Trump’s tariffs will more than wipe out whatever breaks middle-class Americans got from the 2017 tax cut,” Krugman wrote.

View the complete June 4 article by Tom Boggioni from Raw Story on the AlterNet website here.

How Trump’s Tariffs May Wreck The Good Economy He Inherited

When it comes to the economy, Donald Trump was born on third base and claims he hit a triple. But now, he seems determined to be thrown out before reaching home.

His latest move is threatening to impose tariffs on all goods coming from Mexico, starting at five percent and rising to 25 percent in October. He made the announcement Thursday, even as he is asking Congress to approve a new trade deal to keep virtually all tariffs on goods from Mexico at … zero.

It’s a contradiction on the order of pressing one foot on the accelerator while using the other to stomp on the brakes. “Why even have a trade agreement if it means nothing?” former Mexican diplomat Jorge Guajardo asked a reporter for The Washington Post.

View the complete June 2 article by Steve Chapman on the National Memo website here.

Trump’s reliance on pressure tactics is showing diminishing returns

President Trump’s brinkmanship with Mexico over immigration has opened a new and risky front in his global campaign to pressure other nations to capitulate to his demands, a strategy that has paid few dividends over 2 1/2 years and left his major foreign policy initiatives in doubt.

From his “fire and fury” rhetoric against a nuclear-armed North Korea to an escalating trade war with China to new ultimatums aimed at Mexico, Trump has wielded threats, insults and punishments against foreign counterparts, with diminishing returns.

Though he lured Kim Jong Un to the negotiating table through a “maximum pressure” campaign of economic sanctions, Trump’s historic summits with the young dictator ended in failure after talks collapsed in February.

View the complete June 1 article by David Nakamura on The Washington Post website here.

Trump’s tariffs are hitting the country’s most vulnerable: Dollar store shoppers

For more than 30 years, Dollar Tree has made a singular promise to its customers: “Everything’s $1.”

Not anymore.

The Chesapeake, Va.-based retailer, which relies heavily on cheaply made goods from China, said this week that it had begun testing higher prices at some of its stores. Soon, more than 100 Dollar Tree stores around the country will sell items that cost up to $5.

View the complete May 31 article by Abha Bhattarai on The Washington Post website here.

Trump antagonizes both parties on trade

President Trump is facing fire from all sides following his decision to impose new tariffs on exports from Mexico unless that country curbs illegal immigration into the United States.

Republicans caught off guard by the surprise move said it went beyond Trump’s authority and warned it would imperil the new U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) on trade that the White House is pressing Congress to approve.

“Following through on this threat would seriously jeopardize passage of USMCA, a central campaign pledge of President Trump’s and what could be a big victory for the country,” Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), the chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, said shortly after the announcement on Thursday.

View the complete May 31 article by Niv Elis on The Hill website here.

Trump says U.S. to impose 5 percent tariff on all Mexican imports beginning June 10 in dramatic escalation of border clash

President Trump on Thursday said he would impose a 5 percent tariff on all goods entering from Mexico unless it stopped the flow of illegal immigration to the United States, a dramatic escalation of his border threats that could have sweeping implications for both economies.

The White House plans to begin levying the import penalties on June 10 and ratchet the penalties higher if the migrant flow isn’t halted. Trump said he would remove the tariffs only if all illegal migration across the border ceased, though other White House officials said they would be looking only for Mexico to take major action.

After the 5 percent tariffs are imposed on June 10, the White House said it would increase the penalties to 10 percent on July 1 and then an additional 5 percent on the first day of each month for three months. The tariffs would stay at 25 percent “until Mexico substantially stops the illegal inflow of aliens coming through its territory,” a statement by the president said.

View the complete May 30 article by Damian Paletta, Nick Miroff and Josh Dawsey on The Washington Post website here.