SoylentNews is people
SoylentNews
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: 2) by TheGratefulNet on Friday September 06 2019, @02:03AM (2 children)
so, the chinese companies pay the tariff (so you say).
you really think they won't raise prices to compensate?
seriously??
"It is now safe to switch off your computer."
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday September 06 2019, @02:40AM
Yes, seriously. If they try to raise prices, the US will source from their competitors, like Vietnam, India or Cambodia instead.
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Friday September 06 2019, @02:29PM
OK, you appear to have lost the thread. Trump says China has unfair advantages in trade. Because of things like ultra-cheap labor (and in some cases maybe slave labor) and government subsidies, the Chinese are selling stuff really, really cheap. Americans like buying cheap stuff, so they buy lots of Chinese. Enter the tariff. Now Chinese products cost more, because we say so. The Chinese raise prices to compensate - and American consumers start looking around for cheap stuff again. Prices are looking pretty good now on NAFTA goods, and South American goods, and Asian goods not made in China. Even Euro stuff starts looking better, when Chinese cheap shit is priced more competitively.
The real question is - how does China retaliate? And, will it be effective? There are a lot of ways in which China can fuck up, there are some ways in which China can make this work to their advantage. But, raising prices is NOT how China will win this. Every hike in price helps to ensure that Americans do NOT buy Chinese.