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In a sign that the US-China trade war is worsening, on May 5th US President Donald Trump said that tariffs on $200 billion of Chinese goods would go up from 10% to 25% on May 10th.
….of additional goods sent to us by China remain untaxed, but will be shortly, at a rate of 25%. The Tariffs paid to the USA have had little impact on product cost, mostly borne by China. The Trade Deal with China continues, but too slowly, as they attempt to renegotiate. No!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 5, 2019
On May 8th, Trump spoke at a rally in Florida, claiming that trade talks with China had been moving “too slowly.” According to him, China was trying to buy time and wait a Democrat president who would cave in to Chinese demands.
The reason for the China pullback & attempted renegotiation of the Trade Deal is the sincere HOPE that they will be able to “negotiate” with Joe Biden or one of the very weak Democrats, and thereby continue to ripoff the United States (($500 Billion a year)) for years to come….
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 8, 2019
Beautiful evening in Panama City Beach, Florida. Thank you! #MAGAhttps://t.co/lNBM9sED2f
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 9, 2019
“By the way, you see the tariffs we’re doing? Because they broke the deal. They broke the deal,” Trump said. “So they’re flying in, the vice premier tomorrow is flying in — good man — but they broke the deal. They can’t do that, so they’ll be paying.”
Trump added that the United States “won’t back down until China stops cheating our workers and stealing our jobs.”
“That’s what’s going to happen. Otherwise, we don’t have to do business with them,” he said. “We can make the product right here if we have to — like we used to.”
He claimed that the decision to increase tariffs was “a win,” since Chinese Vice-Premier Liu He is to visit the US for a two-day visit with a delegation. Trump claims the Chinese side is now “willing to make a deal.”
On May 8th, the Chinese side expressed regret “over the planned measures by the United States to raise tariffs on imported Chinese products, saying escalating trade frictions is against the interests of the two peoples as well as people of the world.”
“China deeply regrets this, and will be forced to take necessary countermeasures if the U.S. side puts the tariff measures into effect,” a statement said.
The South China Morning Post cited Shanghai-based political analyst Chen Daoyin who claimed that China was willing to push through to the end, and that it had the will to not relent.
“President Xi and his administration have a very firm stand, showing no signs of backing off in the face of challenges,” Chen said. “Xi’s Chinese dream to make a stronger nation has also limited his team’s ability and flexibility to handle external issues.”
Chen said that the focus of the Politburo, the country’s top decision-making body, had changed in the last two months, with less attention on the nation’s economic situation.
“The latest Politburo meeting did not focus on economic stabilisation as it had done in February. Leaders may feel the impact of tariffs on China’s economy is not as grave as expected,” Chen said.
Currently, $50 billion worth of Chinese goods had a tariff placed on them at 25%, and $200 billion had a 10% one. From May 10th, according to Trump’s decision the $200 billion would be put under 25% tariffs.
He has also previously threatened to put tariffs on the remaining approximately $325 billion of Chinese goods that it exports to the US.
In response, China has placed tariffs on $110 billion of US goods. What a possible Chinese response to the May 10th increase would be remains unclear.
The US, in addition to a trade war with China, also had a few spats with other countries in the last year.
After renegotiating trade deals between Mexico and the US, the Mexican side imposed tariffs of up to 25% on US steel, pork, cheese, apples and potatoes.
Canada imposed tariffs on $12.6 billion of US goods after a renegotiated trade deal. The EU imposed 25% tariffs on $2.8 billion of US goods.
Turkey tripled its tariffs on US goods after the US doubled its tariffs on steel and aluminum imported from Turkey.
India also reportedly plans to raise import tax on nuts and it is the biggest buyer of US almonds.
Currently, the US is also attempting to push for a better trade deal with Japan and it is unclear how that will unravel.
MORE ON THE TOPIC:
‘…Escalating trade frictions is against the interests of the two peoples as well as people of the world.’ Whatever the economic consequences of a trade war they pale into insignificance when compared with a military war. That is where events are leading us. https://www.ghostsofhistory.wordpress.com/
Theres only one to pay for the tariff and taxes; the end user, i.e. you and me, everyone knows this, especially the banks and credit unions and they love it!
That’s a childish mentality promoted by the multinational companies, if the end user keeps buying untaxed foreign products, soon they will be out of jobs in their own country since the jobs move abroad.
It’s too late to save jobs in the short term. The US no longer has the engineers to compete in high tech manufacturing. You can’t undo 50 years of under investment in a nations number one commodity, its people by flicking a switch. It would take decades to educate enough Americans to compete, one generation would be needed just to teach the teachers.
USA work productivity is 6th in the world, higher than Japan’s, also the unemployment rate dropped to 3.6. I’d say you should worry more about other nations living standards, how about the average Russian and the fact that Russia is the resources richest country in the world and comparing to other resources rich countries they are doing worse? Could Putin corrupt entourage suck up the country resources and moving the capital overseas, by any chance?
“unemployment rate dropped to 3.6.”
Do you actually believe that? People are living in tents and cars because they don’t want to work?
The real rate is at least 7% https://www.cnbc.com/2019/03/08/the-government-says-unemployment-fell-to-3point8percent-in-february-but-heres-a-more-complete-rate.html
And what about inflation, they fake the numbers by excluding things that rise in price for the CPI, but then count them to juice up GDP. How long the US and Europe can keep up the facade of a healthy economy by borrowing money and throwing that money at the banks is not known, but sooner or later it will fall apart, you can’t fake reality forever.
Ok, the West has a fake economy and Russia and China have real economy, that’s why millions of people want to move there
Bernie Madoff had a great lifestyle, millions wanted to live like Bernie. Just because people fall for the glitter doesn’t make it real.
Deripaska and the other Putin friends have a bigger yachts than that Bernie
What? They live in LA, or Jew York?
Search on youtube ‘luxyry yachts of Russian business men’
“USA work productivity is 6th in the world, higher than Japan’s,”
Yes Americans are the most efficient burger flippers in the world. Look around you, you can’t even fix the roads.
Dont tell me that companys will take a cut out of their profit, so the end user can get a cheaper product.
If that is the case in your country, im moving there.
In case your country doesn’t tax foreign products it must be Antarctica
I think you are misunderstanding me.
I meant that any tax and tariff the US put on goods from China, will just make the goods proportional more expensive for the customer/end user. So all the US is doing is making China made products more expensive for the ordinary Americans, with either lower sales or higher debts as a result.
I didn’t misunderstand you. Does your country tax foreign goods? Why?
Yes you did, but i guess we disagree on that then.
If the selling country is being taxed an extra 20%, then the value of the sold goods increase 20%, meaning that on the shelf in the stores, the goods have increased 20%, i.e. the customer/end user is paying the extra 20%.
In Denmark we have so many taxes and fees, that its hard to differentiate between them, if i remember correct 90% of the electricity bill is taxes, fees and tariffs, 80% of water bill is taxes, fees and tariff, 250 – 350 % of a cars value are taxes and fees and paying 1.2 – 1.5USD per liter diesel/benzin is just insane and that comes after you have payed 50 – 60 % in ordinary tax.
The reason why? An insanely corrupt and greedy POS government protected by blind idiotic voters.
Mine doesn’t, that’s why we don’t make anything anymore. After WWII Australia embarked on an impressive made in Australia campaign. All imports were restricted, and Australia had the highest living standard on the planet. But pressure from the US forced us to open our markets, today we are a lot poorer relative to other countries. But it has always been the USA that has pushed so called free trade. The US navy shelled Korea in 1870, to force them to trade with the USA. Today Korea wins on trade with the USA, it’s karma.
So what. Consumers are stupid! All nations have done this already to get a hotdog ten cents cheaper. The populace is stupid even if the gov is evil.
It doesn’t matter if you pay more. You will still have a job like the people in the USA did before globalisation.
The plutocrats who rule the USA made a decision to move into financial services from manufacturing, because it’s easier to make money. Because the US dollar is the global reserve it’s the most valuable. High value currencies can’t compete against low value currencies in manufacturing. Because the US dollar is the global currency, it loans out a lot of money, that earns interest for the banks. Basically the whole world pays tribute to the USA. That doesn’t help ordinary Americans, but they are no more important than a farm animal to those who rule. Meanwhile the plutocrats gain unimaginable wealth.
“Basically the whole world pays tribute to the USA.”
And if it doesn’t – things get nasty, very nasty in fact.
Venezuela is the latest example.
I was hoping for a type of autarky,where the US relies more on domestic production and consumption and as you say they bring in only high tech imports .It is criminal that America cannot make a decent car when it was the Americans that taught the Japansee how to do so so many years ago. Fat,lazy ,stupid and greedy Big Business. That is why!
As for the rest of your take …I agree with you.
Hope is good, I hope your wish comes true for the large number of homeless Americans who are doing it tough.
I know most people think I hate Americans, I don’t, I hate their government, and actually in my own little way I fight for them, and all the little people who are oppressed by the plutocrats.
https://youtu.be/Xv8FBjo1Y8I
You gotta admire The Donald. He leads a country that is almost bankrupt and up to its ears in debt, while China was doing well and up to its ears in cash. And yet somehow he’s managing to get the best out of this trade war. I fully expect the Chinese to cave in. For all their talk about creating an alternative to the Western dominated economy they seem to be extremely eager to remain part of that economy.
The Chinese are fishing, they have a large fish hooked on a light line, they need to tire the big fish before they real it in. China will simply devalue the Yuan and negate the tariffs. I think Trump is imposing the tariffs as a stealth tax, it’s Americans who pay the tariff not the Chinese. Also China has been expanding into the Eurasia market, and the US market is of less importance. China exports to the US fell by 15% in the first quarter and imports fell 20%. Meanwhile the Chinese economy is still growing and exports to Europe rose by 6%.
Trump thinks he can bluff China, he can’t, they hold the winning hand and know it.
In the short term it may be a stealth tax but it will also lead to the US making more of those products at home over time . More taxes for the nation ,more jobs in the country ,multiplyer effect of money circulating in the economy.
No, the US can’t manufacture a lot of products at home. Simple products yes, but complex products no. Steve Jobs wanted to manufacture the iPhone in the USA, but he couldn’t find the engineers in the US. The US could say make and sell nails and screws, using a Chinese made machines to stamp them out. Once you give up expertise in a field, it is very hard to get it back.
that’s what trump set out to do in his election rants, move industries back to america, but unfortunately they are cooked. even trump knows it and when he threatened to impose duties on europen cars, europe replied that it was willing to reduce duties on american cars and trump stated that that wasn’t good enough since american cars doesn’t sell in europe anyway – indicating he’s aware that american cars are inferior to european ones and in that he is right. and the chief reason for going after huawei is that there is nothing in america coming close to what huawei is making, which the rest of the world realises. the technological advantage american manufacturers once had is gone and it’s been gone for a long time. what takes eons to build can be erased in no time which the morons amply have demonstrated to the world. what a sad and dangerous lot they are.
China betrays Iran and North Korea to please USA.But USA suppress China in South China sea and everywhere.