US President Donald Trump continues to confront the trade war with China, even ahead of the pivotal meeting with his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping. That reports Business Insider.
Trump considers it very unlikely that the 2 heads of state can prevent the planned hike in tariffs. Recently, the United States (US) imposed an additional tax of 10% on products from China† That will be 1% on January 25, unless Xi and Trump reach an agreement. The increase relates to $200 billion worth of Chinese exports.
The presidents meet in Argentina for the G20 summit. Trump and Xi will meet this weekend. However, Trump says there are even bigger problems ahead if that conversation goes nowhere. He threatens an import tax on more Chinese products, worth $267 billion.
Large Charges
At the beginning of this year, Trump intensified the conflict with a 30% tariff on Chinese solar panels. In March, Trump really unleashed the trade war, arguing that China would steal US intellectual property (especially technology-related).
Beijing responded to the charges by introducing similar countermeasures. However, the volume of US exports to China is much smaller than the volumes that the US imports from China. At a certain point, therefore, China will no longer be able to react proportionately.
Import duties on iPhone?
Trump has so far avoided consumer products from China in the tariffs. At present, the higher tariffs mainly apply to industrial products such as aircraft parts, batteries, medical devices, satellites and a number of weapons.
However, Trump would no longer shy away from taxing laptops and iPhones from China more heavily. Earlier this year, Apple convinced the White House to waive a higher import tax on smartphones.
Economists warn that higher import duties will be passed on to consumers, who then tend to spend less. In the medium term, this could harm economic growth. Trump insists an additional 10% tax is not much.
In addition, the US government is also taking other measures to thwart China. For example, people are thinking about strict rules for the export of certain technology. The US Department of Justice has also charged a number of Chinese companies and individuals with economic espionage.
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