In response to President Trump’s strong stance and ongoing tariffs and negotiations with China, China has responded today, and it’s not very conciliatory. China has announced that it will slap new tariffs on $75 Billion dollars worth of U.S. goods.
According to CNN:
China will place tariffs of 5% or 10% on US imports starting on September 1st, according to a statement posted by China’s Finance Ministry.The Ministry also announced plans to resume tariffs on US imports of automobiles and automobile parts. The tariffs would be 25% or 5%, and would take effect on December 15th.
The U.S. equity markets appear to be reacting adversely as of 11:23 AM today as can be seen in the image sourced from Yahoo Finance below, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average dropping over 300 points.
SEE IMAGE BELOW:
“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 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 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, 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!”
SEE FACEBOOK POST FROM DONALD J. TRUMP BELOW:
Trump also noted that although Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell is signaling a possible Fed rate cut, he has done nothing yet, which is, in turn, making this trade dispute with China much more challenging. In a tweet, he asks who is our bigger enemy, Jay Powell or Chairman Xi of China?
SEE TWEET FROM @realDonaldTrump BELOW:
….My only question is, who is our bigger enemy, Jay Powell or Chairman Xi?
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 23, 2019
From USA Today, Jerome Powell stated:
“Based on our assessment of the implications of these developments, we will act as appropriate to sustain the expansion, with a strong labor market and inflation near its symmetric 2% objective,” Powell said in prepared remarks he planned to deliver at 10 a.m. ET at the Fed’s annual conference in Jackson Hole, Wyoming.