The US prepared to hit China with new tariffs even as US President Donald Trump said he would meet Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) at next month’s G20 summit, an encounter that could prove pivotal in a deepening clash over trade.
The US Trade Representative’s (USTR) office on Monday released a list of about US$300 billion of Chinese goods, including children’s clothing, toys, mobile phones and laptops, that Trump has threatened to hit with a 25 percent tariff.
If the president proceeds with the tariffs, it would see almost all imports from China covered by punitive duties.
Photo: EPA-EFE
It also would turn the president’s trade disputes into a tangible reality for many Americans as he seeks re-election.
At the same time, Trump is sounding optimistic about the chances of a deal.
“When the time is right we will make a deal with China. My respect and friendship with President Xi is unlimited but, as I have told him many times before, this must be a great deal for the United States or it just doesn’t make any sense,” he tweeted yesterday.
Photo: AFP
Under a process outlined by US officials, the new tariffs would not take effect until late next month at the earliest, but that could come just as Trump meets with Xi on the sidelines of a G20 meeting on June 28 and 29 in Osaka, Japan, raising the stakes in an already escalating trade war.
Trump earlier on Monday warned Beijing not to go too far in responding to US trade actions, after his move last week to increase import duties on a separate US$200 billion tranche of imports from China.
“There can be some retaliation, but it can’t be very substantial,” Trump told reporters at the White House during a meeting with Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban.
The release of the additional tariffs list and the continuing escalation it signals drew an outcry from business groups that have been lobbying against the duties.
The USTR said that the new tariffs would not apply to pharmaceuticals or rare earths.
“We support the administration’s efforts to deliver a meaningful trade agreement that levels the playing field for American businesses and workers,” National Retail Federation president and CEO Matthew Shay said in a statement. “But the latest tariff escalation is far too great a gamble for the US economy.”
Economists have warned that the existing tariffs would hurt US growth, but they are also worried an escalation to cover all trade from China and the Chinese retaliation it would provoke would do far more damage and could even tip the US economy into recession.
China on Monday announced plans to raise duties on about US$60 billion in US imports starting June 1, defying a call from Trump to resist escalating the trade dispute.
Less than two hours after Trump tweeted a warning that “China should not retaliate — will only get worse!” the Chinese Ministry of Finance unveiled the measures on its Web site.
The new rate of 25 percent is to apply to 2,493 US products, with other goods subject to duties ranging from 5 percent to 20 percent, it said.
Higher US tariffs would drive up the US Federal Reserve’s preferred measure of underlying inflation, and further escalation could raise consumer prices even more and dent US growth, Goldman Sachs Group Inc economists said in a research note.
AIR SUPPORT: The Ministry of National Defense thanked the US for the delivery, adding that it was an indicator of the White House’s commitment to the Taiwan Relations Act Deputy Minister of National Defense Po Horng-huei (柏鴻輝) and Representative to the US Alexander Yui on Friday attended a delivery ceremony for the first of Taiwan’s long-awaited 66 F-16C/D Block 70 jets at a Lockheed Martin Corp factory in Greenville, South Carolina. “We are so proud to be the global home of the F-16 and to support Taiwan’s air defense capabilities,” US Representative William Timmons wrote on X, alongside a photograph of Taiwanese and US officials at the event. The F-16C/D Block 70 jets Taiwan ordered have the same capabilities as aircraft that had been upgraded to F-16Vs. The batch of Lockheed Martin
GRIDLOCK: The National Fire Agency’s Special Search and Rescue team is on standby to travel to the countries to help out with the rescue effort A powerful earthquake rocked Myanmar and neighboring Thailand yesterday, killing at least three people in Bangkok and burying dozens when a high-rise building under construction collapsed. Footage shared on social media from Myanmar’s second-largest city showed widespread destruction, raising fears that many were trapped under the rubble or killed. The magnitude 7.7 earthquake, with an epicenter near Mandalay in Myanmar, struck at midday and was followed by a strong magnitude 6.4 aftershock. The extent of death, injury and destruction — especially in Myanmar, which is embroiled in a civil war and where information is tightly controlled at the best of times —
Taiwan was ranked the fourth-safest country in the world with a score of 82.9, trailing only Andorra, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar in Numbeo’s Safety Index by Country report. Taiwan’s score improved by 0.1 points compared with last year’s mid-year report, which had Taiwan fourth with a score of 82.8. However, both scores were lower than in last year’s first review, when Taiwan scored 83.3, and are a long way from when Taiwan was named the second-safest country in the world in 2021, scoring 84.8. Taiwan ranked higher than Singapore in ninth with a score of 77.4 and Japan in 10th with
SECURITY RISK: If there is a conflict between China and Taiwan, ‘there would likely be significant consequences to global economic and security interests,’ it said China remains the top military and cyber threat to the US and continues to make progress on capabilities to seize Taiwan, a report by US intelligence agencies said on Tuesday. The report provides an overview of the “collective insights” of top US intelligence agencies about the security threats to the US posed by foreign nations and criminal organizations. In its Annual Threat Assessment, the agencies divided threats facing the US into two broad categories, “nonstate transnational criminals and terrorists” and “major state actors,” with China, Russia, Iran and North Korea named. Of those countries, “China presents the most comprehensive and robust military threat
RSS