Iran Press/America: President Donald Trump wants to leave room to ratchet up pressure on Beijing in case talks fail, and to shield U.S. consumers and the GOP from the fallout, the report said.
President Donald Trump is readying a fresh round of tariffs on Chinese goods ahead of scheduled trade talks with Beijing, according to a Wall Street Journal report on Saturday, which is expected to affect $200 billion worth of goods.
The Journal's report dovetailed with a report from Bloomberg on Friday, in which the president is said to have directed his aides to proceed with plans to hit China's imports again — even as both sides prepare to meet in order to dial back on trade tensions. The new tariffs will be set at 10 percent, sources familiar with the matter told The Journal, below an original figure of 25 percent floated by the administration earlier.
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The lower figure has a dual purpose: Diminishing the impact on U.S. consumers ahead of the holiday shopping season, while helping Republicans on the campaign trail ahead of the midterm elections. While voters give Trump high praise on the economy, numerous polls show the Democrats with a wide advantage, and show a public restive about the president's trade wars.
The president is also expected to threaten to hike tariffs again to squeeze Beijing at the negotiating table, the report noted.
In the last several weeks, Trump has repeatedly signaled he could pull the trigger on new tariffs — which could impact a wide range of consumer goods — whenever he deemed the timing appropriate.
This week, the president met with trade advisors, including Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross and U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer, the reports said. Mnuchin had been spearheading attempts to restart trade talks with China.
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On Thursday he tweeted "we are under no pressure to make a deal with China, they are under pressure to make a deal with us."
In a statement provided to CNBC on Friday, the White House said, "The President has been clear that he and his administration will continue to take action to address China's trade practices."
Related News:China won't give in even if US threatens more tariffs
However, China already has announced it will respond in kind on the same schedule as the United States while President Donald Trump has countered with a threat to double down by progressively ratcheting US penalties up to a total of $450 billion in goods -- which would represent the lion s share of all of China s exports to the United States.
US tariffs imposed on many countries have side effect on its own boat manufacturing industry that employs more than 650000 people in the country and is putting a lot of those jobs in danger. Boat manufacturers in US are facing a double whammy foreign tariffs on US made boat.
In March, American President Donald Trump imposed a 25-percent tariff on imported iron and steel, and a 10-percent tariff on aluminium -- since then the issue has been discussed heatedly among the U.S. and its major trade partners.
After that, the EU placed a 25-percent tariff on American products and Trump threatened to impose more tariffs on all European cars.
Trump accused the EU and China of manipulating their foreign exchange rates to obtain trade benefits and said a strong dollar and rising Fed interest rates were undermining US competitiveness.
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