U.S. And China Hit Each Other With New Tariffs
The United States and China began imposing new tariffs on each other’s goods on Sunday 04:01 GMT, Reuters news agency reports.
China imposed a levy of five percent on the United States’ crude making, which is the first time for the country to target American fuel.
China is also imposing additional tariffs on $75 billion worth of American goods — the tariffs are now imposed on 1,717 American items of a total of 5,078 products.
The Trump administration is imposing a 15 percent tariff on $125 billion worth of Chinese goods such as headphones, footwear, and speakers.
Chinese state media likened the United States to a “school bully.”
“As the world’s only superpower, it needs to shoulder its due responsibility, and join other countries in making this world a better and more prosperous place. Only then can America become great again.”
The ruling Communist Party said that “China’s booming economy has made China a fertile ground for investment that foreign companies cannot ignore.”
The statements are consistent with official Beijing’s previous remarks — China has continued challenging United States’ claims that it engages in unfair practices, promising retaliatory measures, and criticizing the Trump administration’s policies as protectionist.
The trade war Trump has been waging on China is, according to Reuters, further straining the fragile relationship between the two countries, given that they are already in dispute over issues related to the South China Sea, where the U.S. conducts military exercises, and Taiwan, which the U.S. supports but China claims as its own.
Representatives from both countries have agreed to talk and meet and will do so in September, but tariff hikes will remain.
The outlook for China’s manufacturing sector deteriorated further in August ahead of a new round of tariffs kicking in on Sunday https://t.co/wv1fvEDGRz
— Bloomberg (@business) September 1, 2019
The trade war with China has created issues for President Trump on the domestic front.
As The Inquisitr reported, Trump recently suggested that he “regrets” escalating the trade war. He was quickly contradicted by the White House, which corrected the president explaining that he actually wanted to say that he “regrets not raising the tariffs higher.”
Republicans in Congress have expressed support for Trump’s trade war escalations. Notably, South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham recently argued that “every Democrat and every Republican of note has said China cheats,” adding that the Democrats have long claimed that China needs to be confronted.
Graham also dismissed the concerns expressed by those opposed to the trade war, arguing that Americans must “accept the pain that comes with standing up to China.”
Trump’s trade war has had a negative impact on the stock market. Stoking fears of an economic recession, the Dow Jones Industrial Average cratered following Trump’s decision to impose a new set of tariffs on Chinese goods. This came after the yield curve — a reliable predictor of recession — had inverted.
It is not only the markets that are upset by Trump’s tariffs, farmers are, too. The National Farmers Union criticized the president’s trade policy, accusing him of “making things worse, not better.”
