The Trump administration will impose a 25 percent tariff on an additional $16 billion in Chinese goods, the U.S. trade representative said Tuesday, ratcheting up international tension.
The tariffs – which will hit products like fertilizer, electrical generators, and railway freight cars – are the second round against China to take effect. Duties were added to $34 billion in imports from the communist nation in July, and Beijing has vowed to impose dollar-for-dollar retaliatory tariffs on $16 billion in U.S. goods.
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President Trump, engaging in a broad dispute with both allies and competitors that he says is necessary to correct a trade imbalance, has threatened duties on as much as $500 billion in Chinese imports altogether. The U.S. trade representative is currently considering an increased 25 percent tariff on $200 billion in products, up from a previously announced 10 percent. In response, Beijing threatened levies of 5 percent to 25 percent on $60 billion in American goods.
Despite concerns from GOP lawmakers, economists and others over the escalating trade dispute, Trump’s top lieutenants are signaling it is unlikely to end anytime soon.
“They better not underestimate the president,” top White House economic adviser Larry Kudlow said previously of China. “He is going to stand tough.”
Large corporations like Caterpillar have raised prices to curb the impact of the tariffs on their supply costs, while Ford Motor Co., General Motors, and others are warning that profits will be lower in 2018 as a result.
Several smaller manufacturers, who are unable to pass the cost of the tariffs along to customers, are laying off workers and cutting production as a result of the trade skirmishes.
