Tag: Trump trade policy

Republicans surrender to Trump’s China tariffs

GOP senators have no plans to even try to stop a trade war they oppose.

The GOP is starting to give up on thwarting President Donald Trump’s trade agenda.

Senate Republicans acknowledge that the president’s latest tariff increase on Chinese importsare harming farm state economies, their own constituents and some of Trump’s most reliable voters. But there’s no plan to stop, or even threaten, the president’s tariff regime — just the latest example of Trump imposing his protectionist will on a party that once celebrated free trade.

As the stock market tanked on Monday following the escalating conflict with China, Republicans lamented the state of affairs. But after trying, unsuccessfully, to get the president to remove his year-old tariffs on U.S. allies, there’s little appetite for opening a new front with Trump when it comes to China.

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.

Trump urges Americans not to buy from American companies because of his own tariffs

He really doesn’t understand just how bad his own plan is.

President Donald Trump kicked Monday morning off with a series of tweets defending his new tariffs against China. His latest tactic is to urge Americans not to buy products from American companies if they manufacture in China.

The way tariffs work is that American businesses pay the fees for bringing in goods manufactured in China, which they then pass on to consumers. The president reasons, however, that Americans can easily avoid these increased costs.

Trump said there is “no reason” for U.S. consumers to pay the tariffs, before claiming that companies inside China would soon move to other countries. In the meantime, Trump said people should just buy products from inside the United States.

View the complete May 13 article by Zack Ford on the ThinkProgress website here.

Kudlow acknowledges U.S. consumers, not China, pay for tariffs on imports

National Economic Council Director Larry Kudlow acknowledged Sunday that American consumers end up paying for the administration’s tariffs on Chinese imports, contradicting President Trump’s repeated inaccurate claim that the Chinese foot the bill.

In an appearance on “Fox News Sunday” two days after U.S.-China trade talks ended with no news of a deal, Kudlow was asked by host Chris Wallace about Trump’s claim.

“It’s not China that pays tariffs,” Wallace said. “It’s the American importers, the American companies that pay what, in effect, is a tax increase and oftentimes passes it on to U.S. consumers.”

View the complete May 12 article by Felicia Sonmez on The Washington Post 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.

AP FACT CHECK: Trump’s fog of misinformation on trade

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump cast a fog of misinformation over the U.S. trade dispute with China, floating inaccurate numbers and skewed economic theories as big tariffs kicked in on Chinese goods.

At stake in the rupture is a trading relationship between the world’s two largest economies that employs nearly 1 million Americans, supplies affordable goods to U.S. households and, in the view of Trump and a bipartisan group of trade hard-liners, puts U.S. business at an unfair disadvantage.

Trump’s torrent of tweets on the subject Friday followed a rally infused with familiar falsehoods about his achievements (the economy, veterans’ health) and grievances (the Russia inquiry). A look at his words over the past week:

View the complete May 11 article by Calvin Woodward and Hope Yen of the Associated Press on The Star Tribune website here.

There are three ways the U.S.-China trade war could end. Two would be bad for America.

President Trump is trying to achieve a massive trade deal with China, something no other president has been able to do. It was always going to be tough. A week ago, a deal appeared close. Now prospects seem bleak.

Trump massively escalated the trade war Friday by hiking tariffs on many Chinese imports. The president now has 25 percent tariffs on $250 billion worth of Chinese products. (While he likes to claim China pays that bill, the truth is U.S. consumers pay it.) The stock market has shed about 2 percent, and China’s top trade negotiator is leaving Washington with no deal, as his country prepares to strike back.

Negotiations are almost always messy, but this is starting to look like mud wrestling in a hurricane. The key question that everyone from the trading floors of Wall Street to the Iowa soybean farms is asking is: How does this end?

View the complete May 10 article by Heather Long on The Washington Post website here.

Trump’s Tariffs Are a New Tax on Americans

President Trump is undermining the credibility of his trade policies by falsely claiming that China is paying the bill.

President Trump’s new tariffs on Chinese imports, which took effect at 12:01 a.m. on Friday, are taxes that will be paid by Americans. That is a simple fact, and it remains true no matter how many times Mr. Trump insists the money will come from China.

Mr. Trump’s latest escalation of his trade fight with China is a 25 percent tariff, or import tax, on products that compose about one third of China’s exports to the United States, including Chinese bicycles, circuit boards and wooden doors. The tariff rate on those goods was previously 10 percent. Mr. Trump also has threatened to impose the 25 percent rate on virtually all products imported from China — more than $500 billion in goods last year.

Mr. Trump could make an honest case for this tax increase. He could argue that Americans must endure higher prices because China will suffer too — while China does not bear the direct cost of the tariffs, it is likely to suffer a loss of sales — and the United States needs that leverage as it presses China to change its economic policies.

View the complete May 10 commentary from The New York Times Editorial Board on their website here.

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.

For Trump, little gained this week from all-or-nothing negotiating style

‘You just can’t do things this way if you want to succeed,’ former U.S. official says

ANALYSIS — Donald Trump’s my-way-or-the-highway negotiating style was on full display this week. But the president is set to end the week with little gained on some big campaign promises.

From stalled trade talks with China to a new immigration reform plan to his legal battle with House Democrats over the special counsel’s Russia election meddling report and their desire to hear from his advisers, the president and his team again showed how they often take a position and hunker down. The message is clear: Adhere to the Trump way or prepare for war — be it one of the global trade variety or one over the Constitution.

As his administration’s years-long talks with Beijing over a new trade agreement went from highly possible to a longshot, the president on Friday morning struck a Trumpian tone as he increased tariffs from 10 percent to 25 percent on $200 billion worth of Chinese-made goods.

View the complete May 10 article by John T. Bennett on The Roll Call website here.