President Trump is set to move forward with tariffs of $200 billion more on Chinese goods as soon as Monday, according to news reports.
The White House could announce that Trump will slap at 10 percent tariff — less than the 25 percent that was initially floated — on a long list of Chinese imports.
{mosads}Business groups and many lawmakers on Capitol Hill are strongly opposed to another round of tariffs, which they argue will raise prices for consumers and won’t do anything to force the Chinese government to change their unfair trade practices and provide more market access to U.S. products.
“This extreme use of tariffs hurts our nation’s access to global markets and threatens many of the 1.3 million good-paying equipment manufacturing jobs our industry supports,” said Association of Equipment Manufacturers (AEM) President Dennis Slater.
“To make matters worse, U.S. farmers are losing out at a time when their incomes are on the decline,” Slater said.
“It’s clear everyone loses in a trade war. This administration should be looking for ways to improve our trade relationship with China, not doubling down on tactics that only lead to continued retaliatory actions.”
The U.S and China already have imposed tariffs of $50 billion on each other’s products.
Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin last week proposed another round of talks with Chinese Vice Premier Liu He later this month in an effort to ease tensions in the escalating trade war.
But a meeting is now in doubt, making it much less likely that the world’s two largest economies will reach an understanding on trade any time soon, the Wall Street Journal reported Sunday.
Last week, Trump threatened a third batch of tariffs on another $267 billion of Chinese imports, covering more than all Chinese exports to the United States.