Trump Ratchets Up Tariff Talk as Key Week Looms for Trade
New York Times – President Trump boasted about the power of taxing imports on Monday morning and warned that countries that do not agree to his trade demands will be “tariffed,” escalating tensions as crucial negotiations loom with China and Canada.
In a pair of tweets, Mr. Trump continued to make the case that tariffs largely harm the countries that are taxed, saying the impact on the American economy has been “almost unnoticeable.” His comments are likely to further rattle American businesses, which have pleaded with the administration to abandon the tariffs and warned they will raise prices, cost jobs and hurt the United States economy.
Mr. Trump is not expected to relent. He is expected to announce this week that the United States will impose tariffs on another $200 billion worth of Chinese goods, a move that people familiar with the negotiations say could scuttle trade talks that are planned with the Chinese next week.
Mr. Trump has threatened to tax all Chinese goods if Beijing does not change its trade practices and has already levied tariffs on steel and aluminum imports from other countries, including Canada, Mexico and the European Union.
The president tweeted that his steel tariffs have given “new life” to the domestic steel industry, and that price increases from those and other tariffs have barely been felt in the American economy.
Neither claim is supported by economic data. Steel prices are up more than 10 percent since February, the month before Mr. Trump announced his long-awaited tariffs of 25 percent on steel and 10 percent on aluminum, from a wide swath of trading partners. Prices on washing machines jumped 20 percent in the months following Mr. Trump’s decision to impose tariffs on imported washers.
Since Mr. Trump announced his steel and aluminum tariffs, employment in primary metals manufacturing — which includes those industries — has increased by less than 1,000 jobs, according to the Labor Department.
Still, Mr. Trump said tariffs had put the United States “in a strong bargaining position,” alluding to upcoming talks with Canada in an attempt to complete a renegotiation of the North American Free Trade Agreement, and to a scheduled-but-tenuous round of talks with China next week.
Mr. Trump has already imposed tariffs on $50 billion of imports from China, on products designed to minimize price pain for American consumers, including chemicals, machinery and other industrial components.
The total wave of tariffs thus far has not been large enough to meaningfully affect consumer prices broadly across the economy — only narrowly, for certain products. Economists warn that the effects could grow noticeably larger if Mr. Trump follows through with his $200 billion round of Chinese tariffs, and particularly if he makes good on his threat earlier this month to subject nearly all Chinese imports to tariffs.
Source: US Government Class
