Friday, July 6, 2018

China Says the United States Has Begun the 'Biggest Trade War' in History


The  Trump Administration has instituted new tariffs on Chinese imports as of 12:01 AM today.

China’s Commerce Ministry said it would be “forced to make a necessary counterattack”  and accused the United States of starting “the biggest trade war in economic history.”

It will probably get worse.

Trump discussed the trade war Thursday with journalists who flew with him to Montana for a campaign rally. The president said U.S. tariffs on an additional $16 billion in Chinese goods are set to take effect in two weeks.

After that, the hostilities could intensify: Trump said the U.S. is ready to target an additional $200 billion in Chinese imports — and then $300 billion more — if Beijing does not yield to U.S. demands and continues to retaliate.

That would bring the total of targeted Chinese goods to potentially $550 billion — more than the $506 billion in goods that China actually shipped to the United States last year.

-RW  

(via Q13 FOX)

3 comments:

  1. “...blockading squadrons are a means whereby nations seek to prevent their enemies from trading; protective tariffs are a means whereby nations attempt to prevent their own people from trading. What protection teaches us, is to do to ourselves in time of peace what enemies seek to do to us in time of war." ---Henry George, 1886

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  2. Wasn't the first shot the various tariffs and other restrictions China has been allowed to maintain? It was those which inspired the ignoramus Trump down this path with such a hamfisted approach. Had China removed those in the last 20 years Trump wouldn't have much to complain about. Of course using tariffs now to encourage China to drop theirs is several decades too late now.

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    1. I’m going to enact a tariff on any goods imported into my household from my grocer from now on, and make my kids and wife pay extra. After all, there’s this galling trade imbalance between us: I’ve noticed that in the last 10 years or so, I’ve bought WAAAY more from Kroger than they ever bought from me---I’m being taken advantage of, to the tune of about a $50,000 trade-imbalance! Unfair trade, I say!!! Either they start buying stuff from me, or I’m enacting that tax on imports!

      https://fee.org/articles/how-free-trade-triumphed-and-made-europe-great/

      https://fee.org/articles/unfair-advantage-is-no-excuse-for-protectionism/

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