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from the start-counting-the-pennies,-er,-yen dept.
Submitted via IRC for Bytram
Trump's 15 percent tariff on Chinese goods kicks in
It's the first day of September, marked by a new round of tariffs on Chinese imports, which went into effect Sunday. In latest escalation of the trade war with China, the Trump administration has slapped a 15% tariff on $112 billion worth of Chinese goods (PDF), something consumers can expect to feel when buying everything from milk to diapers to some China-manufactured tech products like the Apple Watch.
But on Aug. 13, the USTR said it would offer a temporary reprieve to a batch of about $160 billion products (PDF) like laptops and cellphones. Those goods won't be subject to the new tariffs until Dec. 15 -- an attempt to blunt the impact of the duties on the holiday shopping season. Trump later raised the new tariff on Chinese goods to a 15% rate rather than the initial 10%.
China retaliated Sunday with its own tariff plan taking effect at 12:01 p.m. local time. It's rolling out higher tariffs in stages on a total of about $75 billion in US goods like soybeans and crude oil. It'll also resume an extra 25% duty on cars imported from the US on Dec. 15.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by TheFool on Thursday September 05 2019, @08:06PM (1 child)
I think you may be on to something.
It's not just CO2. It's a pretty well known fact that Chinese goods are cheap because, among other things, they are more than willing to abuse the environment in ways that you can't do legally in the US anymore. Companies would also be forced to obey US labor laws, reducing net worker abuse. So hypothetically, if the tariffs did exactly what they were intended to do, you'd be looking at a net boon for the environment and workers' rights at the very least.
(Score: 2) by Joe Desertrat on Thursday September 05 2019, @10:13PM
I might be in favor of tariffs if they were specifically targeted at manufacturers and companies that are evading laws designed to prevent environmental and worker abuses.
What they are really intended to do is pick certain winners and losers in the short term, as well as pander to the emotions of those who support Trump. You can be certain they will not return jobs to the US.