Trade war with China intensifies: Trump hikes tariffs and demands businesses relocate
Trump calls on package carriers to ‘search for & refuse’ fentanyl deliveries from China
The trade negotiations between the U.S. and China took a hostile turn Friday, as President Donald Trump plans to raise tariffs on the nation in reaction to Chinese tactics to thwart American demands to reduce tariffs and control fentanyl shipments.
“For many years China (and many other countries) has been taking advantage of the United States on Trade, Intellectual Property Theft, and much more. Our Country has been losing HUNDREDS OF BILLIONS OF DOLLARS a year to China, with no end in sight,” Trump tweeted. “Sadly, past Administrations have allowed China to get so far ahead of Fair and Balanced Trade that it has become a great burden to the American Taxpayer. As President, I can no longer allow this to happen!”
The move came hours after Beijing said it would hike tariffs on $75 billion in U.S. imports, escalating a conflict over trade and technology that threatens to tip a fragile global economy into a recession.
Trump called those tariffs “politically motivated.”
“Starting on October 1st, the 250 BILLION DOLLARS of goods and products from China, currently being taxed at 25 percent, will be taxed at 30 percent,” Trump continued. “Additionally, the remaining 300 BILLION DOLLARS of goods and products from China, that was being taxed from September 1st at 10 percent, will now be taxed at 15 percent. Thank you for your attention to this matter!”
For many years China (and many other countries) has been taking advantage of the United States on Trade, Intellectual Property Theft, and much more. Our Country has been losing HUNDREDS OF BILLIONS OF DOLLARS a year to China, with no end in sight….
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 23, 2019
….Sadly, past Administrations have allowed China to get so far ahead of Fair and Balanced Trade that it has become a great burden to the American Taxpayer. As President, I can no longer allow this to happen! In the spirit of achieving Fair Trade, we must Balance this very….
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 23, 2019
…unfair Trading Relationship. China should not have put new Tariffs on 75 BILLION DOLLARS of United States product (politically motivated!). Starting on October 1st, the 250 BILLION DOLLARS of goods and products from China, currently being taxed at 25%, will be taxed at 30%…
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 23, 2019
The social media announcements also included the demand that American companies relocate out of China.
Our Country has lost, stupidly, Trillions of Dollars with China over many years. They have stolen our Intellectual Property at a rate of Hundreds of Billions of Dollars a year, & they want to continue. I won’t let that happen! We don’t need China and, frankly, would be far….
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 23, 2019
….better off without them. The vast amounts of money made and stolen by China from the United States, year after year, for decades, will and must STOP. Our great American companies are hereby ordered to immediately start looking for an alternative to China, including bringing..
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 23, 2019
….your companies HOME and making your products in the USA. I will be responding to China’s Tariffs this afternoon. This is a GREAT opportunity for the United States. Also, I am ordering all carriers, including Fed Ex, Amazon, UPS and the Post Office, to SEARCH FOR & REFUSE,….
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 23, 2019
It is interesting to note that shortly following the demand to move businesses from China, Trump noted that there were plans to enhance trade with Brazil.
Just spoke with President @JairBolsonaro of Brazil. Our future Trade prospects are very exciting and our relationship is strong, perhaps stronger than ever before. I told him if the United States can help with the Amazon Rainforest fires, we stand ready to assist!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 23, 2019
Earlier this month, I noted that Trump had slammed China for failing to reduce its shipments of the addictive opioid to those who send it to this country. The President has now called on major package carriers in the United States to “search for & refuse” packages from China that contain the drug fentanyl.
….your companies HOME and making your products in the USA. I will be responding to China’s Tariffs this afternoon. This is a GREAT opportunity for the United States. Also, I am ordering all carriers, including Fed Ex, Amazon, UPS and the Post Office, to SEARCH FOR & REFUSE,….
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 23, 2019
….all deliveries of Fentanyl from China (or anywhere else!). Fentanyl kills 100,000 Americans a year. President Xi said this would stop – it didn’t. Our Economy, because of our gains in the last 2 1/2 years, is MUCH larger than that of China. We will keep it that way!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 23, 2019
August tends to be a slow news month. Trump has managed to dump several months worth of material out ahead of the weekend. I expect the elite media will be doing some major pearl clutching during this weekend’s news shows.
Perhaps the talking heads will escalate the recession fears even further! One thing they won’t do is support a leader who has taken on a frenemy who has stolen technology, sent poison to our young, and seems completely unwilling to negotiate in good faith.
DONATE
Donations tax deductible
to the full extent allowed by law.
Comments
LOL … This is not your father’s Republican Party!
Thanks be to God!!!!!!
With the Old GOPe we didn’t need any enemies!
If only the “new” Republican Party find their gonads and show up to help. Even the “conservative” media personalizes things instead of helping to explain WHY Trump is doing what he is doing and WHY it’s our last chance to play our winning hand. For everyone not named Trump, it’s about 2020. For Trump and the survival of America, it’s about NOW!
Unfortunately, the fight continues to be pretty much all Trump. If that doesn’t change, we will have no alternative than to take military action. That should really worry our “allies”. We are the only nation on earth that can win a world war all by ourselves. It’s up to our “friends” to decide if they care to remain free. Our priorities are changing.
We have everything we need, especially if we are no longer burdened by having to carry the rest of the “free world’s” deadbeats on our backs. Let them do their own dying. Apparently, they are willing to accept the consequences of unconditional surrender to global totalitarianism without a fight. Good riddens.
The US still makes a surprising number if items we assume only are now made in China. It is the huge firms that dumped on the US working people the most, Colgate-Palmolive, HP, etc.
Corporate America is far from unified against Trump. The biggest reason that the GOP is out-raising the Dems by 3-1, even in Democrat strongholds is because these corporations are talking with their money rather than waste their time being misquoted and/or demonized by the media. You can bet Trump hears from them which explains why he has so much confidence.
Yesterday’s carnage in the commodity markets was very bad for China. It wasn’t good for us either but then, we only import food because of politics, not because of need. Those ethanol-addicted corn farmers living off of those subsidies could switch to producing food we no longer import e.g. Instead of importing blueberries, we could buy those Maine blueberries now looking for buyers due to “tariffs”. The consensus among corporations is that tariffs are not hurting much, if at all. But that doesn’t fit the narrative.
I would sure like to know who was eating shit big time in yesterday’s commodities sell-off. It might predict who will be eating most of shit (the unsustainable debt burden) when the inevitable day of reckoning arrives. We may be less afraid if we knew who is lined up to do most of the eating. It doesn’t have to be us. In fact, it mightbe worth it. Do it before the cryptos push the world through a currency wormhole where only the Masters of the Universe come out unscathed. The death of fiat currency is the biggest economic issue we should be talking about today.
Hard to know which side is up on the trade front. So many leaving tweets and comments as if they were insiders, not to mention the media pursuing its agenda.
Trump, for sure, has joined the issue. Others before him allowed it to fester. It would not improve otherwise, unless the previous path was the right one. Can anyone say that?
Last week, Romney attacked Trump for being too buddy-buddy with Xi and Putin. Do you think we’ll soon see a video of him raving excitedly now that Xi has been declared an enemy? “Y-y-e-e-a-a-h-h!!! THAT’S what I’m talking about! That’s the Trump I’ve been waiting for!!! Woohoo!!” Fat chance.
Romney is what he’s always been, all in for Romney, F the USA. Many of us see through him, many are still blind and think he is a saint.
So, no, as you correctly point out, Romney, the father of Obama care, is not going to find anything to praise Trump about.
Is it possible, just possible that the likes of John Kerry, Brack Obama and Hillary Clinton precipitated this by telling China Trump will soon be gone — wait it out?
Time to choose. The Globalists can move to China lock, stock, and barrel, or they can move out of China, lock, stock, and barrel. President Trump didn’t say they have to move to the U.S., but it is preferable. He is definitely going to put the screws to China, along with anybody else who doesn’t get out fast enough.
Three words.
Star Wars USSR
We apparently know the people in China making the Fentanyl.
China is engaging in chemical warfare against US Civilians.
Then there’s the Uhrguirs, and the rest of their hostilities.
They are worse than Iran. They are worse than Russia.
But we have sanctions on them, but not on China?
It’s my sense that China didn’t actually “steal” American know-how; American corporations gave it to them willingly to boost profits. Take McConnell Douglas for example. They built an airplane factory in China and taught the Chinese how to build airplanes.
Both things have happened. The Chinese practice outright theft in many ways and forms including stealing it from documents.
And then there are American companies that are led by short sighted ignoramus’s that give it away for fear of being excluded from China. They get to do that. I get to choose not to purchase their products.