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President Trump has signed a presidential memorandum directing the U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer to draw up a list of Chinese products on which tariffs could be imposed. The list will be made public in 15 days, and tariffs will take effect after a 60-day comment period:
The US plans to impose tariffs on up to $60bn (£42.5bn) in Chinese goods and limit the country's investment in the US in retaliation for years of alleged intellectual property theft.
The White House said the actions were necessary to counter unfair competition from China's state-led economy. It said years of talks had failed to produce change. China said it was ready to retaliate with "necessary measures". Beijing also said it would "fight to the end" in any trade war with the US.
US stock markets closed lower on Thursday, as investors responded to the announcement. [...] The White House said it has a list of more than 1,000 products that could be targeted by tariffs of 25%. Businesses will have the opportunity to comment before the final list goes into effect.
Reuters portrays the action as "far removed from threats that could have ignited a global trade war". Bloomberg notes that many industry trade groups and companies are opposing the tariffs.
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(Score: 2) by LoRdTAW on Friday March 23 2018, @11:12AM (6 children)
Start with food. Last thing we need is a weak agricultural industry. Remember how ancient troops burnt the wheat fields of their enemies? That's what we're watching right now, an economic war that we're slowly losing because we let them.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by PiMuNu on Friday March 23 2018, @11:36AM (2 children)
I believe the argument is that economic cooperation is better for both parties than war. So yes, china's economy is improving, but this *helps* the US economy. If Chinese folks have more disposable income, they can spend that on US manufactured goods.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by takyon on Friday March 23 2018, @04:37PM
A trade deficit indicates that's not happening. They are also making more stuff for their own domestic market, and copying the technology needed to rip off and create their own versions of smartphones, cars, etc.
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday March 25 2018, @02:09PM
US manufactured goods that the chinese spend their money on?
Aside from buying Starcraft so they can play online, nothing else comes to mind. And the Asian servers are by orders of magnitude more powerful and populated than the rest of the world.
US manufactured goods! That was a good one.
(Score: -1, Flamebait) by Ethanol-fueled on Friday March 23 2018, @02:50PM (2 children)
Pass a law mandating that all American property bought by the Chinks will be repossessed by the state, and possibly with detailed information about the buyers passed back to the Chinese government so that they are compelled to investigate those buyers for corruption and laundering.
Alongside that pass a law mandating that Chinks and other hostiles are not allowed to purchase American property. That ain't gonna hurt anybody but fat cats and other big-city folk, and those muh property values types are cancer anyway.
We're on the right track already going after the Confucius Institutes on our college campuses.
(Score: 4, Interesting) by jelizondo on Friday March 23 2018, @03:22PM (1 child)
Are you a fucking pinko communist? Property is sacred pal, or at least in Capitalistic countries it is.
China owns about 1.2 trillion dollars in U.S. bonds, and the deficit was increased this year, so quoting Fortune Magazine: [fortune.com]
That the average American thinks its good to start a trade war I can understand, that the POTUS doesn't even listen to his own experts, that is scary.
(Score: 2) by Phoenix666 on Friday March 23 2018, @05:07PM
No, this is where the old adage must be recalled: "When you owe the bank a little money, the bank owns you. When you owe the bank a lot of money, you own the bank."
China's economy has been growing, and they have been strengthening their military. But a nation's strength rests on many levels, and the United States still has far, far greater power than China does or will have for some time to come. Also, it's worth mentioning for all the moaning and gnashing of teeth about the death of manufacturing in the United States, it still has an incredibly strong manufacturing economy.
The United States still does have legions of scientists and engineers who can mobilize if required (as much as they have been disgracefully abused in the last 20 years).
Washington DC delenda est.