Tag: Trump trade war

Trade war taking a toll in Minnesota

The major stock indices soared Thursday on word that the U.S. and China would hold high-level trade talks next month. Despite investors’ optimism, the Trump administration’s trade war with China has already hit Minnesota retailers and consumers.

A new round of tariffs took effect this week, and the prospect of further hikes has some Minnesota retailers on edge.

As of Sunday, a 15 percent charge began applying to $110 billion of mostly consumer goods imported from China. Trump has also announced that existing tariffs on another group of $250 billion of goods will go up to 30 percent next month.

View the complete September 5 article by Riham Fishir on the MPR News website here.

Dried-up exports bring Minnesota farmers to breaking point

The Trump administration has tried to downplay this reality.

Last month at FarmFest, a three-day ag show here in Minnesota, several farmers made national news when they confronted U.S. Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue about the pain the president’s trade war has caused them.

In front of hundreds of other farmers, they told Perdue that contrary to the president’s tweets, farmers aren’t “doing great again.” They talked about how their markets are disappearing. One state farm leader pointed out that when a farmer meets with his lender and explains that they can’t make a payment, being a “patriot” in the eyes of the president does nothing to spare them from bankruptcy.

Even in a room full of the president’s supporters, the comments were met with nodding heads and widespread applause. Like me, the farmers in the room that day have reached their breaking point.

View the complete September 4 commentary by Tim Dufault on The StarTribune website here.

Trump might like Brexit less when he sees what it does to the economy

Washington Post logoPresident Trump’s support for Britain’s exit from the European Union may be about to collide with his election-year hopes of presiding over a strong economy.

The president has long seen “Brexit” as reflecting the same sort of nationalist impulse that drove his White House upset in 2016. He has hailed British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who vows to sever ties with Europe on Oct. 31 no matter what, as a kindred populist spirit.

But as British Parliament this week dealt Johnson a stunning four consecutive defeats, the prospect of further delay in leaving the E.U. or a chaotic no-deal divorce spiked.

Continuing instability in the world’s fifth-largest economy — coupled with anti-government protests in Hong Kong, a U.S.-China trade war, and financial problems in major developing countries such as Argentina and Turkey — threatens to become a drag on an already troubled global economy.

View the complete September 5 article by David Lynch on The Washington Post website here.

Trump’s ag bailout is going to the starving farmers of… Minneapolis?

To the unlettered, Donald Trump’s trade war with China doesn’t seem to fit the technical definition of “winning.” The average consumer will pay an extra $800 this year due to his import taxes on everything from shoes to televisions. And a spooked Wall Street is trading like it hasn’t stopped binging on cocaine and hookers since New Year’s.

Then again, Trump launched his career with a meager $413 million stake from daddy, beginning his meteoric rise to occasionally successful businessman. That’s why he’s president, and you and I are not.

So to lessen the casualties of this war, the president has turned to a tried and true method: the socialist redistribution of $25 billion in taxpayer money to those who need it most, big city executives.

View the complete September 3 article by Pete Kotz on The CityPages website here.

Trump’s Trade War Hits Sporting Goods

Since 1983, Kim Karsh has helped baseball teams deal with an inconvenient fact of the modern economy: Almost everything you need to play America’s homegrown sport is now made in China, from cleats to batting helmets.

Lately, supplying the game’s amateurs and fans has gotten more difficult. Karsh owns California Pro Sports in Harbor City, California, where invoices for big customers now include a caveat: Prices are up due to the Trump administration’s tariffs on Chinese imports, and they could rise further on short notice.

“We have to explain to our customers that the trade war affects them as it does us,” Karsh said. “We can pass on pretty much everything to the consumer. The problem is, now they will shop lower-quality items. Some understand, and other people don’t.”

View the complete September 3 article by Lydia DePillis with ProPublica on the National Memo website here.

Recession Hits US Manufacturing Sector In Trade War

U.S. factories are struggling so badly that the manufacturing sector is officially in a recession, according to a Bloomberg report. It’s thanks in large part to Trump’s trade war with China.

New data released Tuesday shows shrinking orders, production, and hiring in the manufacturing industry, hitting a three-year low. The news follows worrisome data from August showing new manufacturing orders and exports hit a 10-year low.

Factories are struggling so much that the manufacturing industry is “technically already in a recession in the U.S.,” Bloomberg wrote. A recession is defined as when the Federal Reserve observes two straight quarters, or six months, of declining output.

View the complete September 3 article by Dan Desai Martin on the National Memo website here.

Trump’s Trade War Raised Taxes By $30 Billion

Trump’s trade war is going to cost American taxpayers an additional $30 billion taxes a year, according to a new analysis released Thursday by the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO).

“CBO estimates that all tariffs enacted under Trump are raising taxes by about $30 billion annually ($315B 2020-2029),” noted Zach Moller, deputy director of Third Way’s Economic Program. “This would rise to about $45 billion a year if announced tariffs go into effect.”

The trade war tax hike would add to Trump’s already weak record on taxes.

View the complete August 31 article by Oliver Willis on the National Memo website here.

Five things to know about Trump’s Labor Day weekend tariffs

The Hill logoThe Trump administration is poised to impose 15 percent tariffs on roughly $112 billion of Chinese imports on Sunday, the latest escalation in a tit for tat trade war. The latest salvo comes amid growing fears of a global economic downturn and increasing pessimism about the prospects of striking a trade deal.

Here are five things you should know about the newest round of tariffs:

The new tariffs will hit consumer goods, including some big holiday retail items.

Until now, the Trump administration has tried to shield consumers from the effects of tariffs by focusing mostly on intermediate goods, which businesses buy to make their finished products. The upcoming round of tariffs cuts directly into consumer products, meaning people will start to see an increase in their bills.

View the complete August 30 article by Niv Elis and Sylvan Lane on The Hill website here.

Wall Street ends volatile month in major test for Trump

The Hill logoWall Street ended a wild August with the Dow up slightly on Friday, capping a tumultuous month for the global economy that spurred a wave of volatility in financial markets and posed a challenge for President Trump.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average, S&P 500 index and Nasdaq closed the final day of August trading little changed from their Friday opens, with the Dow and S&P up only 0.2 and 0.1 percent, respectively.

But the three indices were well below their levels at the start of the month after a notoriously rough stretch for Wall Street. The Dow fell 1.76 percent in August, down 474 points. The index this month suffered two of its seven largest point losses, falling by 800 points on Aug. 14 and 767 points on Aug. 5.

View the complete August 30 article by Sylvan Lane on The Hill website.

China Tariff Costs by Congressional District

Center for American Progress logoThe Trump administration’s decision to impose tariffs on goods from China has proven to be an expensive sacrifice for families and businesses while accomplishing virtually nothing for working people in the United States. According to estimates from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, the average American household will pay $831 per year to cover the China tariffs that are already in effect. Others have predicted even greater effects of the tariffs so far, including JPMorgan, which estimates the tariffs’ annual cost at $1,000 per household. However, since the release of both studies, the administration has substantially escalated its so-called trade war, likely putting even more of a pinch on consumers in the United States. As is the case with the rest of the its economic policies, the administration has put business interests over working people.

Methodology

Tariff costs for congressional districts are calculated by multiplying the Federal Reserve Bank of New York’s estimate for the total annual cost of the China tariffs to the typical household—$831—by the number of households in each congressional district, as estimated by the U.S. Census Bureau.

Since this study’s release, President Donald Trump has imposed new tariffs at a higher rate on a variety of Chinese goods, and the Chinese have responded with additional retaliatory tariffs. The latest round of tariffs, which will partially go into effect on September 1, with a second wave hitting on December 15, will further these harms on working people and consumers. Therefore, this calculator likely underestimates the total effect of the tariffs on congressional districts.

Daniella Zessoules is a research assistant for Economic Policy at the Center for American Progress.

Author’s note: The total annual cost to consumers is an undercount. The Federal Reserve Bank of New York’s estimate was derived under the assumption of 127.6 million households in the United States in 2018. However, the best available data at the district level only identify 121.3 million households.

View the complete August 29 article by Daniella Zessoules on the Center for American Progress website here.