China Retaliates With Tariffs on $75 Billions of More U.S. Goods
Products include soybeans, crude-oil imports, cars, and pork
China has decided to implement tariffs on $75 billion worth of U.S. goods as the U.S. plans to impose tariffs on $300 billion worth of Chinese products.
These additional tariffs will cover almost all of the remaining U.S. products imported to China.
New Tariffs
The move comes as President Donald Trump continues to express optimism when it comes to the trade war with China.
China will impose the tariffs on September 1 and December 15, the same dates as the new U.S. tariffs. U.S. cars will receive a 25% tariff. China slapped a 10% tariff on pork imports. A 5% tariff will go with auto parts and components, soybeans, and crude-oil imports. The Chinese did not include liquified natural gas.
Trump announced new tariffs in early August, which led to China “freezing purchases of U.S. agricultural products and letting its currency drop to its lowest level in a decade.”
The Wall Street Journal pointed out “[A] weak yuan makes Chinese exports cheaper.”
Affecting the Economy?
I hate tariffs. I do not keep that a secret. However, I refuse to go into the doom and gloom like so many other people. I’ve also seen people on Trump’s side say that tariffs have not harmed the economy.
Which side has the correct opinion and facts?
I spoke with a financial friend of mine. He said it’s still too early to determine if the tariffs have started to hurt the economy.
You cannot ignore the fact that consumer spending has risen in the last few months. It hit a record high in July.
The Commerce Department reported, “spending on retail and dining services rose 0.7 percent in July.” Experts predicted 0.3 percent.
The July jobs report showed that hourly earnings went up by 8 cents to $27.98. Wages have increased by 3.2% from this time last year.
Wage growth, even with a slow buildup, illustrates that employers have to entice people to take jobs since the market has started to slim down. More jobs mean fewer people looking for jobs.
People want instant gratification, immediate results and answers. Patience is required when it comes to these situations.
[Featured image via YouTube]
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Comments
So China bought Smithfield about 10 or 15 years ago, a big hog grower in North Carolina and around there.
Now they’re embargoing imports of hogs from the US. They need those hogs for their normal diet.
This seems like they ran out of things they could really afford to embargo, but they can’t lose face, so they’re now cutting off their nose to spite their face!
You said it!!!!
But the Communist Chinese Dictatorship doesn’t care.
This will only hurt their billions of “little people!”
Steve Bannon (August 21, 2019): “”…..people are gonna be absolutely stunned when they see how the elites..of the Western democracies and the United States went along with China and exacerbated a situation when it was quite evident they (China) were at economic war with us.”
….in China’s 4000 year history they developed “Barbarian Management.”
That means they take the leaders of the “barbarians” (U.S.) and GIVE them a “taste of the good life” (read Millions and Millions in money to our Dems and GOPe).
That’s what China has been doing for the last 25 to 30 years with our Dems and GOPE and why they agreed to hollow out the industrial states of the Northeast and Mid-West. They deliberately sold their constituents out for the Communist Chinese.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qH5QzuzD01A
They are also targeting soy which they are probably the biggest consumer. So once again, they will choose privation of their citizenry over acting in their own best interests.
Yesterday, there was an op-ed in WaPo arguing that the ChiComs had Trump over a barrel because of China’s “superior” bargaining position by nature of being a dictatorship and so Trump will lose. Au contraire. They are about to learn that betting against American determination is a desperate bet.
Our economy may eventually be tripped up by our domestic enemies into a recession, but it won’t be any time soon and certainly not enough to get Trump defeated in 2020. If I were Trump, I would be hitting the hustings attacking the China-Democrat collusion.
WaPo is ComPo. Since the balance of trade is so far out of whack, America has little to lose, China has much to lose. I hope Trump RAISES tariffs even more …. c’mon, this is poker and we have the winning hand. Let Trump RAISE tariffs another 25%, and let’s see if the Reds follow suit with another round of devaluation.
Trump is the ONLY guy with balls to do this. Dems and RINO’s would fold like a cheap suit.
100% SPOT ON!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
That was exactly my thought, too. As soon as they are putting tariffs on their own food supply, it shows Trump has won. The reason why they import food is that they can’t farm or ranch it themselves. No nation willingly puts its core food needs in the hands of foreign nations if they can avoid it.
Also, Trump can also turn the screws on Powell once the Jackson Hole confab gets going. Whose side is the Fed on anyway? It will be interesting to see whether the globalist bankers support Powell. Further opportunity to tie the globalist establishment together in one package without using the word “conspiracy”.
They figured since they owned our entire industrial base, we’d be their vassals by now.
Smithfield foods is in Smithfield, Virginia not Smithfield, NC. We are very proud of it here, although much less proud of it since Chinese investors bought it out.
Thank you Artichoke for knowing the score. China has no hogs to feed soybeans to so they don’t need them. This isnt a hit it’s a cover-up.
RE: “..I refuse to go into the doom and gloom like so many other people.”
Bravo! Bravo!
President Trump has been “dealing” around – to do it ethically – these types of corrupt people his entire life (only 50 plus years now).
They have a swine herd epidemic that is causing their hog population to be euthanized. They’ve slowed down soy and feed purchases from us and from Brazil because of the diminished hog herd population.
Seems like a cosmetic tit for tat if you ask me.
Until they can replenish their herds, my guess is that they will find someone to sell them pork……since they can’t “import” from their own company (Smithfield) without the tariffs.
There are also massive plant diseases killing their grain crops.
I suspect the Communist Chinese are BIG on MONO-Culture Crops.
Crop invaders: China’s small farmers struggle to defeat…
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-crops-armyworm-china-idUSKCN1UZ0LL
Lovely time they’re having. Drought, pestilence, plague of insects. Next comes the famine.
Instead of death to the first born, they already did it to themselves but with the second born. And the Party did not permit a Passover.
They may want to find someone else to sell pork to them, but 1 Billion people eat a whole lot of pork.
Maybe Xi will start manufacturing Soylent Green.
Begin inspection of all container ships coming from China. Every container, every box, every pallet. Begins in x months. Watch the China investment leave…
China will implode, Xi will become non-existent. It’s possible there will be a revolution.
Short term pain = long term gain.
Especially when you learn about the “Frankenstein” crops they’re working towards.
To feed its 1.4 billion, China bets big on genome editing of crops – By Jon Cohen Jul. 29, 2019
https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2019/07/feed-its-14-billion-china-bets-big-genome-editing-crops
So, who will blink first? The Chinese already had an effective tariff system in place, that undermined free market practices through substandard environmental and labor practices, mandated and involuntary intellectual property transfers, and other market manipulations.
A chemist friend of mine who worked for the Navy once had a Chinese company steal his US patented work and then offer to sell him the manufactured products. There is some serious gall in that kind of theft!
The price for pork fried rice just went up in China. Like most global commodities (oil for one) there’s probably a pooled market for pork. China is short right now with its swine flu epidemic. It’s got to buy pork from somewhere–or the Chinese people have to do without as much pork as they like. Other pork suppliers may be able to pickup the slack and shift pork to China that would have gone elsewhere. And if American pork producers can find those other non Chinese markets, things will ultimately settle down.
Did you know this? I didn’t.
“bertdilbert says:
I think Denmark just got crushed. Denmark is the largest exporter of pig in the world and Maersk is the second largest employer. LOL.”
https://theconservativetreehouse.com/2019/08/23/president-trump-warns-u-s-multinationals-to-exit-china/comment-page-1/#comment-7301319
Patience. China plays a long game in 100 year increments. The USA has a political and news cycle with the life span of a fruit fly.
Xi knows this, but his economy is sagging badly. Trump knows this, too, and is kicking Xi in his small berries to hasten a white flag.
Xi retaliates hoping November 2020 brings some else to the table besides Trump.
It’s a long game – and gamble. Place yer bets!
I’ve read the Communist Chinese want (must be backing too – with how much money?) Joe Biden.
Joe , and his son, Hunter, don’t have clean hands when it comes to China. But few Democrats do – especially when their names a re Clinton and Feinstein.
Grassley, invoking ‘Uranium One,’ probes Biden-linked sale of sensitive tech company to China
Starve the Communist SOBs. Patience!
We did fine in world trade before Nixon and Herr Doktor Kissinger sold us out to the Chinese. We will do fine again.
Our dogs won’t die from food adulterated with melamine (Why are we importing dog food?)
Our drugs won’t be mis- manufactured. (My Losartan/HCTZ was recalled twice in 6 months; why do we trust the Chinese to make our medicines?)
Small appliances may last more than two years.
Remember the Communist Chinese even had melamine added into baby formula, killing many many babies.
Like any battle, winning takes an combination of patience and aggression. (Just look at the left in this country, and how they have plowed the our schools, our media and the GOP into the ground.)
“General” Trump is on a tear. Back him up, or we’ll be back to obamaville.
I hate tariffs. I do not keep that a secret.
This is like saying that you hate surgery. Anybody with any sense does. But that doesn’t mean that it isn’t sometimes a lifesaver. Just don’t overdo it.
That’s a brilliant analogy. Perfect.
Quick Good/Bad note.
The tariffs are slowing the economy – Bad
The tariffs are increasing tax revenue – Good
If the economy were not slowed by the tariffs, the Fed would raise interest rates. This would raise the cost for US borrowers, and the US deficit. – Bad
If this results in a fairer trade policy with China – Good
If the Dems manage to wedge themselves into power first and throw everything that has been accomplished out the window in a fit of Trump-hate – Bad
Why do you think the tariffs are slowing the economy? What data point is indicating anything like that?
Chinese cars? Oh dear! Pork also, this is awful! Soybeans? They can keep these tariffs up at 100% for all I care.
We need to put that $75B in perspective too. The pork and soy beans are delivered to whoever holds the associated commodity contracts at expiration. China will be looking to make up the lower imports from the US by importing from elsewhere. If it creates a shortage, then China will have to pay higher market prices and may end up taking delivery on the US commodity through arbitrage.
It’s very disruptive at first but ultimately, the markets adjust. The farmers and ranchers committed to their production at the beginning of the season based on whatever price the speculators offered that would make them profitable. And difference will get subsidized by the government.
So this is mostly about next year for the producers. But the speculators get crushed if demand isn’t made up somewhere else. And the political risk will impact prices for next year too.
It’s all about political calculation because for the US, it’s mostly about political fallout. For China, it’s about privation from possible shortages and future price increases which is a political risk too. China is fast turning into a pressure cooker at home.
Were they to stomp on Hong Kong, it could trigger major domestic problems at home even if the rest of the world shrugs it off. Trump should be fanning the HK flames feeding it gasoline. China simply cannot afford another violent crackdown on its own people. Only the bankers and Masters of the Universe seem to think China is winning. For the rest of us, it’s just another exercise of watching our team refuse to score a touchdown while standing at the goal line. Take the hit and fall into the end zone already!
The Hong Kong protestors are in it for real:
https://www.breitbart.com/national-security/2019/08/23/hong-kong-protesters-28-mile-human-chain/
They can call 2-3 million HK citizens into the streets and are playing the global theater game very skillfully. This is not Tiananmen Square. It’s much bigger. All “our side” (whoever that is these days) has to do is report it. You can bet this is keeping Emperor Xi up at night. Does he continue to take the advice of the Obama/Kerry/Clinton/Romney/Bush etal… losers or start taking duly elected Trump and the American voters seriously? Go ahead Xi. Cut off the other foot too. It’ll make it easier for us to cut off your head later. The Chinese people will thank us.
In am certain nobody over-planted soybeans, or raised too many swine.
These things are well thought out in advance.
So, if China quits buying either, the demand doesn’t disappear.
You merely start trading customers around. China goes to Brazil, someone else comes to the U.S.A.