Trump going ahead with taxes on $16B in Chinese imports
WASHINGTON — The Trump administration announced Tuesday that it will go ahead with imposing 25 percent tariffs on an additional $16 billion in Chinese imports.
Customs officials will begin collecting the border tax Aug. 23, the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative said. The list is heavy on industrial products such as steam turbines and iron girders.
Tuesday's announcement was not a surprise. In April, the administration had announced plans to slap tariffs on 1,333 Chinese product lines worth $50 billion a year. After receiving public feedback, it cut 515 products from the list in June and added 284. On July 6, the U.S. began taxing the 818 goods, worth $34 billion, remaining from the April list.
In the meantime, it sought public comment on the new items. On Tuesday, the administration said it had decided to go ahead with tariffs on 279 of the 284 items added in June; they're worth about $16 billion a year.
China has been retaliating in kind.
And the conflict is likely to escalate: The administration is preparing tariffs of up to 25 percent on an additional $200 billion in Chinese products. And President Donald Trump has threatened to impose tariffs on virtually everything China sells to the United States. Chinese imports of goods and services into the United States last year amounted to nearly $524 billion.
The world's two biggest economies are locked in a trade dispute over Washington's charges that China uses predatory tactics in a drive to supplant U.S. technological supremacy. The alleged tactics include cyber-theft and a requirement that American companies hand over trade secrets in exchange for access to the Chinese market.
U.S. and European trade chiefs are meeting hours before the U.S. is expected to impose tariffs on European steel and aluminum that could unleash a trade war.
U.S. Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross told Le Figaro newspaper that a decision on tariffs would likely come after markets close Thursday. The U.S. decision is likely to be to impose tariffs, though there is slim hope that the two sides could reach a last-minute agreement.
Ross met Thursday morning in Paris with French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire, whose government has vigorously objected to tariffs.
And U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer is meeting in Paris on Thursday with EU Trade Commissioner Cecilia Malmstrom among other international trade chiefs.
In his Le Figaro interview, Ross said the Americans are still open to discussion, and the EU would be to blame for any trade war if it imposes retaliatory tariffs as expected. — AP
The United States is extending for another six months exemptions from punitive tariffs for dozens of Chinese medical products due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, the US Trade Representative announces.
The exclusions from import duties, which were set to expire Tuesday, "cover 81 medical-care products needed to address the Covid-19 pandemic," USTR says in a statement. — AFP
The United States announces that it will impose additional tariffs on French and German products as part of a long-running dispute over subsidies for aircraft manufacturers Airbus and Boeing.
The tariffs are on "aircraft manufacturing parts from France and Germany, certain non-sparkling wine from France and Germany, and certain cognac and other grape brandies from France and Germany," which will be added to the list of products taxed since 2019, according to a statement from the US Trade Representative. — AFP
Government data show the US trade deficit in October unexpectedly fell to its lowest level in more than a year as Americans imported billions less in autos and consumer goods like toys and mobile phones.
The reduction in the deficit -- a central goal of President Donald Trump's aggressive trade agenda -- reflected the decline in the worldwide exchange of goods and services as the global economy weakens.
But it could help lift US economic growth in the final quarter of this year, since deficits subtract from GDP. — AFP
The United States proposes $4 billion in tariffs on a range of European Union products -- including parmesan cheese and Scotch and Irish whiskey -- over subsidies for commercial aircraft.
The list also includes sausages, hams, pasta, olives and many other cheeses including reggiano, provolone, edam and gouda.
"Today, the Office of the US Trade Representative is issuing for public comment a supplemental list of products that could potentially be subject to additional duties," it says in a statement.
The potential tariffs are due to "EU subsidies on large civil aircraft," the statement says.
The EU says the sum of $11.2 billion demanded by the US in tariff counter-measures on a host of European products was exaggerated, as a simmering transatlantic trade row risked escalating.
"The EU is confident that the level of countermeasures on which the notice is based is greatly exaggerated," a European Commission source says, in response to the fresh US tariffs threatened in response to subsidies for Europe's plane-making giant Airbus. — AFP
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