On May 20, with the Trump administration talking optimistically about its chances of striking a major trade deal with China, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin declared America’s trade war with Beijing “on hold.” Now, with that deal apparently falling apart, the war is officially back on: The White House announced a new round of trade actions Tuesday intended to punish China for stealing technology and intellectual property, including a new 25 percent levy on $50 billion of Chinese goods “containing industrially significant technology.”
“The United States will continue efforts to protect domestic technology and intellectual property, stop noneconomic transfers of industrially significant technology and intellectual property to China, and enhance access to the Chinese market,” press secretary Sarah Sanders said in a statement. “Likewise, 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.”
