Despite President Trump previously calling the US’ relationship with China “one-sided”, Trump once again insisted there is no impending trade war. Taking to Twitter this morning, the president tweeted: “We are not in a trade war with China, that war was lost many years ago by the foolish, or incompetent, people who represented the U.S. Now we have a Trade Deficit of $500 Billion a year, with Intellectual Property Theft of another $300 Billion. We cannot let this continue!”
We are not in a trade war with China, that war was lost many years ago by the foolish, or incompetent, people who represented the U.S. Now we have a Trade Deficit of $500 Billion a year, with Intellectual Property Theft of another $300 Billion. We cannot let this continue!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 4, 2018
These statements echo the president’s statements back in November of last year when he stated that he doesn’t “blame China” because “who can blame a country for being able to take advantage of another country for the benefit of its citizens? I give China great credit.”
These remarks come on the heels of an investigation by the Trump administration into Chinese commercial practices and a new tariffs on steel and aluminum imports. It is worth noting that these new tariffs only impact a small percentage of the US-Chinese market valued at nearly $650 billion a year. Despite this, China hit back against the Trump administration’s new measures with their own series on tariffs on Wednesday.
China hit back at the United States on Wednesday with proposed tariffs on $50 billion worth of American soybeans, cars, chemicals and other goods, in a move likely to stoke fears that the countries’ escalating confrontation could become an all-out trade war.
Moving with unusual speed, Chinese officials outlined plans to make it more costly to import 106 types of American goods into China. They are intended to hit the United States square in the farm belt — a major section of President Trump’s political support but also a major supplier of what China stocks in its supermarkets.
Beijing’s plan to institute new tariffs was announced just hours after the Trump administration detailed its own protections on a similar value of Chinese-made aircraft parts, cars and car parts, televisions, steel and much more. Following a previous round of tit-for-tat tariffs unveiled over the past few days, the new measures have sparked concerns that the dispute could widen further, hurting jobs and growth in both countries.
