Trump officials see a trade-talk advantage: China is maxed out on tariffs

Published December 11, 2018 5:00am ET



Trump administration officials think they have the upper hand in the latest round of trade negotiations with China, set to end by March, because Beijing doesn’t have the ability to levy much more in tariffs on imports from the U.S. China, they believe, has already hit the U.S. as hard as it could.

While China could retaliate against the U.S. in other ways, Trump officials seem to place an emphasis on the threat of tariffs. The administration was originally set to increase tariffs on $200 billion worth of Chinese goods to 25 percent at the beginning of 2019, up from their current level of 10 percent. Following a meeting with Chinese leader Xi Jinping at the G20 summit in Argentina, President Trump agreed to hold off on that for 90 days to allow more time for negotiations.

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