Posted on 05/29/2018 6:54:58 PM PDT by Zhang Fei
The Trump administration said it would proceed with tariffs on $50bn in Chinese imports and broader investment restrictions, rebooting a trade war with Beijing that it claimed was “on hold” less than two weeks ago.
The new tariffs, to be formally unveiled in two weeks, are intended to punish Beijing for what President Donald Trump has argued is a systematic campaign by China to steal US technology.
The announcement came as Wilbur Ross, US commerce secretary, prepared to lead a delegation to Beijing this week and as critics in Congress assailed Mr Trump for having declared that he would soften punishment on ZTE, the Chinese telecoms group, after a request by President Xi Jinping.
The measures had first been promised in March when Mr Trump announced the results of an investigation into China’s intellectual property practices and what foreign businesses and the US say is the common practice of forcing investors to hand over technologies as a cost of entry to the Chinese market.
But Steven Mnuchin, US Treasury secretary, subsequently declared this month that the US and China had agreed to put their trade war “on hold” while they negotiated a package of new Chinese purchases and other measures.
In a statement, China’s commerce ministry said it was surprised by the White House’s statement and called it “contrary to the consensus” reached during a meeting in Washington earlier this month that led to Mr Mnuchin’s statement.
Mary Lovely, a Syracuse University economics professor and fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics, said by catching Beijing by surprise the move marked an escalation in pressure by Washington.
“It looks like typical Trump ‘I’m going to raise the ante just as my guy is going in’ kind of stuff,” she said.
(Excerpt) Read more at ft.com ...
Completely agree.
President Trump. Now is when we have all been waiting for.
For real. Stand up.
I voted for him to get tough on trade, so I hope he goes through with it. China offering to buy more farm products wouldn’t help our rust belt.
I agree.
Our entire establishment is all sold out to China, Mexico, everywhere non-America.
It is time to rebuild right here.
In fact it is long, long overdue.
Tariffs are patriot candy.
Steven Mnuchin GET.RID.OF.HIM.
I just wish that one of these intellectually dishonest a$$holes, that write for "business" news, would admit that the trade war with China is ongoing and persistent. It has never ended and so rebooting is a stupid impossible verb.
This is to get China to pressure North Korea.
Trading a tariff for NORK pressure from Beijing is a FAIL. Losing.
Remember, Hillary was on the Board of Directors of Walmart and helped to make this mess happen.
In retrospect, it is easy to understand why Walmart paid to get Bill Clinton to get elected in 1992.
And why all the Chinese Nationals like Charlie Trie gave the illegal political contributions to Clinton and were never prosecuted.
Clinton campaign in 1992 was the Communist Chinese interference with a US election.
Trade wars are ongoing, however, in the past they have been fought only by other countries with the United States capitulating.
Now the United States is fighting back.
President Trump is keeping his promise to put America first.
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