Trump Plows Ahead on China Tariff Threats, Investment Curbs

[Hamartia Antidote]

So after talking the Chinese into funding that hotel..Trump is back slapping their faces...

http://www.industryweek.com/trade/trump-plows-ahead-china-tariff-threats-investment-curbs

May 29, 2018. The White House said a final list of covered imports will be released by June 15 and the tariffs will be imposed “shortly thereafter.” New restrictions on Chinese investment and enhanced export controls will be announced by June 30.

President Donald Trump signaled his intention to impose tariffs on $50 billion in Chinese imports and curbs on investments in sensitive technology, sending a hawkish message to Beijing days before the latest round of trade talks between the world’s two largest economies.

In a statement on May 29, the White House said a final list of covered imports will be released by June 15 and the tariffs will be imposed “shortly thereafter.” It’s the most specific the administration has been about when the duties will take effect.

The White House also said new restrictions on Chinese investment and enhanced export controls will be announced by June 30, with implementation soon after.

“The United States will continue efforts to protect domestic technology and intellectual property, stop non-economic transfers of industrially significant technology and intellectual property to China, and enhance access to the Chinese market,” the statement said. “The United States will request that China remove all of its many trade barriers, including non-monetary trade barriers, which make it both difficult and unfair to do business there.”

Ross’s Trip

It’s the latest twist in a trade dispute between the U.S. and China that has roiled financial markets and prompted the International Monetary Fund to warn of a trade war that could undermine the broadest global upswing in years. The announcement raises the stakes for the third round of talks between the two economies. Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross is scheduled to meet with officials in Beijing on June 2-4 to continue negotiations.

Trump has vacillated in recent weeks on how hard to push Beijing over issues such as tariffs and intellectual property. The dispute began in March, when his administration threatened to slap tariffs on up to $50 billion in Chinese shipments to punish Beijing for violating American IP rights.

After Beijing promised to retaliate in kind to any duties, the president raised the ante to slap tariffs on an additional $100 billion in Chinese goods. However, the U.S. has yet to publish a list of target products for the $100 billion, and the White House statement makes no reference to the second potential tranche of duties.

Trump is under pressure from Congress to stay tough on China, especially Chinese telecoms-equipment maker ZTE Corp. Last week, the president said he would allow ZTE to stay in business after it pays a $1.3 billion fine, shakes up its management, and provides "high-level security guarantees.”

ZTE Criticism

China pressed the U.S. to give ZTE a break after the Commerce Department cut off the company from U.S. suppliers to punish it for allegedly lying to American officials in a sanctions case. Republican Senator Marco Rubio and other lawmakers from both parties have criticized Trump’s leniency toward ZTE, arguing that doing business with the company presents a risk to national security.

When he announced the initial plan to impose tariffs, the president also instructed the Treasury Department to draw up new curbs on investments in the U.S. by Chinese companies. The Treasury has presented its findings to the president, but its conclusions haven’t been made public.

The latest signal from the White House sounds like the more hawkish wing of Trump’s trade team is trying to amplify its hard line, after Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said this month that any talk of a trade war was suspended for now.

“Mnuchin’s ‘trade war on hold’ comments look to have been repudiated this morning, and possibly his investment stance, too,” said Derek Scissors, a China analyst at American Enterprise Institute in Washington. “It may be the administration has shifted somewhat to appease the Congress on the lifting of the ZTE sanctions.”

The White House statement also said the U.S. plans to continue litigation at the World Trade Organization for China’s intellectual-property practices.

 

[bobsm]

Trump Will Hit Americans With $50 Billion in Import Taxes After All
Don't believe the administration's claim that this will hurt China.
Eric Boehm|May. 29, 2018 5:00 pm

Chris Kleponis/CNP/AdMedia/Newscom

Little more than a week after backing away from the threat of a trade war with China, the Trump administration on Tuesday reversed course and announced plans to impose tariffs on some 1,300 Chinese-made goods.

"The United States will impose a 25 percent tariff on $50 billion of goods imported from China containing industrially significant technology," the White House announced Tuesday. A final list of covered imports will be announced on June 15—the preliminary list released in April included everything from biscuit ovens to airplane parts, and from flamethrowers to cash registers—and the tariffs will actually be imposed "shortly thereafter," the White House said.

This amounts to a $50 billion tax increase on American consumers and businesses.

But don't take my word for it. Instead, take John Hoff's. Hoff, the president of Global Point Technology, an upstate New York company that designs and sources manufacturing components, was one of more than 100 people to testify before the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative against the proposed tariffs. His business already pays more than $40,000 in import taxes, but would have to pay more than $1.3 million if Trump's proposed tariffs went into affect, he told the office's special tariff committee.

"Imposing these tariffs would not be punishing a Chinese company," Hoff said. "It would be punishing a U.S. company."

He was hardly the only one to deliver that message. Over and over again, the committee heard from American business owners who said tariffs would wreck their bottom lines, force price increases to be passed along to consumers, and not do much of anything to punish China.

A few days after the hearing—and after two days of negotiations between Trump administration officials and their Chinese counterparts—an armistice was declared. China made some vague promises about buying more American products with the aim of reducing the trade deficit between the two countries, and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin went on Fox News to declare that the administration was "putting the trade war on hold."

The peace apparently didn't last.

What changed? Maybe this is another case of Trump simply doing whatever the last person to speak to him says. Behind the trade war, there is a more camouflaged conflict between Trump's top economic advisers, with free-traders like Mnuchin and Larry Kudlow pitted against economic nationalists like Peter Navarro. Over the long weekend, maybe the protectionists cornered the president and changed his mind.

Or maybe Trump has "thrown caution to the wind" and is following his gut on tariffs as one unnamed White House source told Axios' Jonathan Swan over the weekend.

Regardless of the reasons, this is no way to conduct foreign policy and serves only to rattle the domestic economy. Trump's quick about-face on the Chinese tariffs surprised Beijing. "This is obviously contrary to the consensus reached between the two sides in Washington not long ago," China's Ministry of Commerce said Tuesday in a statement.

Whatever it is that Trump hopes to accomplish by threatening a trade war—here's your reminder that the goals are far from clearly outlined, nor is there much evidence that tariffs are a useful tool in fighting China's admittedly bad trade practices—it's hard to see how pulling the rug out from under your negotiating partner is a step on the path towards resolution.

Worse, this tune-in-next-week-to-find-out approach to trade negotiations creates huge levels of uncertainty for American businesses.

"How are U.S. businesses to innovate and create more value for consumers when policymakers bring so much uncertainty to trade?" asks Nathan Nascimento, vice president of Freedom Partners, a pro-trade group. "While some have speculated that this routine of announcing future tariffs is a mere negotiating ploy, the reality is that they have immediate and lasting, negative impacts on millions of Americans."


https://reason.com/blog/2018/05/29/trump-tariffs-will-happen-after-all

 

[Hamartia Antidote]

But don't take my word for it. Instead, take John Hoff's. Hoff, the president of Global Point Technology, an upstate New York company that designs and sources manufacturing components, was one of more than 100 people to testify before the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative against the proposed tariffs. His business already pays more than $40,000 in import taxes, but would have to pay more than $1.3 million if Trump's proposed tariffs went into affect, he told the office's special tariff committee.

"Imposing these tariffs would not be punishing a Chinese company," Hoff said. "It would be punishing a U.S. company."

He was hardly the only one to deliver that message. Over and over again, the committee heard from American business owners who said tariffs would wreck their bottom lines, force price increases to be passed along to consumers, and not do much of anything to punish China.

A few days after the hearing—and after two days of negotiations between Trump administration officials and their Chinese counterparts—an armistice was declared. China made some vague promises about buying more American products with the aim of reducing the trade deficit between the two countries, and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin went on Fox News to declare that the administration was "putting the trade war on hold."

The peace apparently didn't last.

What changed? Maybe this is another case of Trump simply doing whatever the last person to speak to him says. Behind the trade war, there is a more camouflaged conflict between Trump's top economic advisers, with free-traders like Mnuchin and Larry Kudlow pitted against economic nationalists like Peter Navarro. Over the long weekend, maybe the protectionists cornered the president and changed his mind.

Or maybe Trump has "thrown caution to the wind" and is following his gut on tariffs as one unnamed White House source told Axios' Jonathan Swan over the weekend.

Regardless of the reasons, this is no way to conduct foreign policy and serves only to rattle the domestic economy. Trump's quick about-face on the Chinese tariffs surprised Beijing. "This is obviously contrary to the consensus reached between the two sides in Washington not long ago," China's Ministry of Commerce said Tuesday in a statement.

Whatever it is that Trump hopes to accomplish by threatening a trade war—here's your reminder that the goals are far from clearly outlined, nor is there much evidence that tariffs are a useful tool in fighting China's admittedly bad trade practices—it's hard to see how pulling the rug out from under your negotiating partner is a step on the path towards resolution.

Worse, this tune-in-next-week-to-find-out approach to trade negotiations creates huge levels of uncertainty for American businesses.

"How are U.S. businesses to innovate and create more value for consumers when policymakers bring so much uncertainty to trade?" asks Nathan Nascimento, vice president of Freedom Partners, a pro-trade group. "While some have speculated that this routine of announcing future tariffs is a mere negotiating ploy, the reality is that they have immediate and lasting, negative impacts on millions of Americans."


https://reason.com/blog/2018/05/29/trump-tariffs-will-happen-after-all

Oh LOL!!!

He isn’t going to get much sympathy from the American public that a tariff will simply push costs of importing parts closer to the price of having them domestically manufactured. That’s the whole poInt of the tariff.

 

[大汉奸柳传志]

renege a one week old deal... got to be a new record.. I mean China has been dealing with barbarians for over 3000 years but never like this.

 

[Hamartia Antidote]

renege a one week old deal... got to be a new record.. I mean China has been dealing with barbarians for over 3000 years but never like this.

LOL! What deal? The Chinese members on here say China has not agreed to anything...especially any $200B trade concession. So Trump has reneged on nothing.

 

[大汉奸柳传志]

LOL! What deal? The Chinese members on here say China has not agreed to anything...especially any $200B trade concession. So Trump has reneged on nothing.

there was verbal agreement.