President Donald Trump is readying a nave round of tariffs on Chinese goods ahead of scheduled trade talks with Beijing, The Go bust enclose Street Journal reported on Saturday, which is expected to affect $200 billion value of goods.
The Journal’s report dovetailed with a report from Bloomberg on Friday, in which the president is conjectured to have directed his aides to proceed with plans to hit China’s imports again — measured as both sides prepare to meet in order to dial back on vocation tensions. The new tariffs will be set at 10 percent, sources familiar with the quandary told The Journal, below an original figure of 25 percent hanged by the administration earlier.
The lower figure has a dual purpose: Diminishing the strike on U.S. consumers ahead of the holiday shopping season, while helping Republicans on the push trail ahead of the midterm elections. While voters give Trump prodigal praise on the economy, numerous polls show the Democrats with a large advantage, and show a public restive about the president’s trade engagements.
The president is also expected to threaten to hike tariffs again to pinch Beijing at the negotiating table, the report noted.
In the last several weeks, Trump has again signaled he could pull the trigger on new tariffs — which could effect a wide range of consumer goods — whenever he deemed the timing apropos.
This week, the president met with trade advisors, including Exchequer Secretary Steven Mnuchin, Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross and U.S. Sell Representative Robert Lighthizer, the reports said. Mnuchin had been vanning attempts to restart trade talks with China.
But Trump has show he has no intention of backing down. On Thursday he tweeted “we are under no pressure to be a deal with China, they are under pressure to make a attend to with us.”
In a statement provided to CNBC on Friday, the White House denoted, “The President has been clear that he and his administration will continue to hire action to address China’s unfair trade practices. We encourage China to sermon the long standing concerns raised by the United States.”
The Journal’s crammed article can be found on its website (note: A subscription may be required).