President Trump is ordering the USTR to consider additional tariffs on Chinese goods. Bloomberg’s Sobczyk reports. U.S. President Donald Trump said the current trade spat with China may hurt the markets in the short term but that America will emerge stronger from it, as a confrontation that has roiled global equities heats up between the world’s two largest economies.
“I’m not saying there won’t be a little pain,’’ Trump said Friday during an interview on 77 WABC Radio’ “Bernie & Sid in the Morning’’ program. “So we might lose a little of it but we’re going to have a much stronger country when we’re finished, and that’s what I’m all about.’’ Stocks opened lower on Wall Street with the S&P 500 Index down 0.7 percent at 9:34 a.m. in New York.
At almost the same time as Trump spoke, a senior Chinese government official in Beijing repeated a vow from earlier that day that the country would “retaliate immediately, intensively, without any hesitation” if the U.S. releases new list of tariffs on $100 billion additional imports. China has prepared for more U.S. trade measures and has drafted detailed retaliatory measures, Chinese Ministry of Commerce spokesman Gao Feng said.
The dispute has intensified since late on Thursday when Trump ordered his administration to consider tariffs on an additional $100 billion in Chinese goods, sending U.S. stock futures tumbling. He cited “China’s unfair retaliation” in response to his list of proposed tariffs earlier this week covering $50 billion in Chinese products.
Trump said falling aluminum prices was proof his get-tough trade policies are working in a Twitter message Friday morning. “Despite the Aluminum Tariffs, Aluminum prices are DOWN 4%. People are surprised, I’m not! Lots of money coming into U.S. coffers and Jobs, Jobs, Jobs!” he said in a posting.
Steel Tariffs Earlier this month, China announced tariffs on $3 billion of U.S. goods such as pork and wine in retaliation for the steel and aluminum tariffs imposed last month by Trump.
Trump’s unexpected move on China threatens to unravel efforts by top U.S. and Chinese trade officials to lower the heat and reach an agreement that could stave off an escalating conflict. Administration officials have spent the past two days trying to tamp down fears of a trade war, with chief economic adviser Larry Kudlow saying Thursday the U.S. could still hammer out a deal with Beijing. Bloomberg
