China Tariffs Set to Take Effect Sunday to be Delayed by Trump

US President Trump and Chinese President Xi

It appears the Trump Administration will not implement, for the time being, the next round of tariffs on China that were set to go into effect Sunday.

U.S. and Chinese trade negotiators are laying the groundwork for a delay of the fresh round of tariffs as trade negotiations continue, The Wall Street Journal reports.

Presumably, President Trump wants a trade deal done before the 2020 election, though he did recently say that he could wait until after the election to strike a trade agreement.

The tariffs set to go into effect were 15% tariffs on about $160 billion in Chinese goods.

Please note, these trade negotiations are about crony trade deals. For true free trade, all you need to do is open the borders to goods but, still, crony trade is better than no trade.

-RW

UPDATE

President Trump's top economic adviser Larry Kudlow says Dec. 15 tariffs are ‘still on the table.’

“The reality is those tariffs are still on the table, the Dec. 15 tariffs, and the president has indicated if the short strokes remaining in negotiations do not pan out to his liking that those tariffs could go back into place,” Kudlow said at a Wall Street Journal conference on Tuesday.

“So, they could not, but they also could. There is no definitive decision on that yet,” Kudlow added.

Kudlow’s comments came after The Wall Street Journal reported the U.S. was contemplating pushing back additional tariffs on Chinese goods set to take effect on Dec. 15. Bloomberg News also said China expected the U.S. to hold off on those extra levies.