China to penalize $60 billion of U.S. imports in tit-for-tat move

By Susan Heavey and Yawen Chen

 

FILE PHOTO: Shipping containers, including one labelled "China Shipping," are stacked at the Paul W. Conley Container Terminal in Boston, Massachusetts, U.S., May 9, 2018. REUTERS/Brian Snyder/File Photo

 

WASHINGTON/BEIJING (Reuters) - China and the United States plunged deeper into a trade war on Tuesday after Beijing added $60 billion of U.S. products to its import tariff list in retaliation for President Donald Trump's planned levies on $200 billion worth of Chinese goods.

 

The tit-for-tat measures are the latest escalation in an increasingly protracted trade dispute between the world's two largest economies.

 

On Monday, the U.S. administration said it will begin to levy new tariffs of 10 percent on about $200 billion of Chinese products on Sept. 24, with the tariffs to go up to 25 percent by the end of 2018.

 

"China is forced to respond to U.S. unilateralism and trade protectionism, and has no choice but to respond with its own tariffs," the Finance Ministry said in a statement on its website on Tuesday.

 

Beijing will impose levies on a total of 5,207 U.S. products - ranging from liquefied natural gas to certain types of aircraft as well as cocoa powder and frozen vegetables - at 5 and 10 percent, instead of previously proposed rates of 5, 10, 20 and 25 percent, the finance ministry said.

 

Both countries' tariffs come into force on Sept. 24.

 

So far, the United States has imposed tariffs on $50 billion worth of Chinese products to pressure China to make sweeping changes to its trade, technology transfer and high-tech industrial subsidy policies.

 

Beijing has retaliated in kind, but some analysts and American businesses are concerned it could resort to other measures such as pressuring U.S. companies operating in China.

 

While both sides said they were open to talks, Trump launched a Twitter broadside at China, accusing Beijing of targeting rural voters who had supported his presidency by hitting agricultural goods.

 

"China has openly stated that they are actively trying to impact and change our election by attacking our farmers, ranchers and industrial workers because of their loyalty to me," Trump wrote.

 

It was not clear what statement from Beijing Trump was referring to in his post. A short video published this summer by Beijing had suggested that farmers would not vote for Trump if their incomes were hurt by his trade policies.

 

Trump warned on Monday that if China takes retaliatory action against U.S. farmers or industries, "we will immediately pursue phase three, which is tariffs on approximately $267 billion of additional imports."

 

'VERY UNFORTUNATE'

A senior Chinese securities market official said U.S. trade actions will fail as China has ample fiscal and monetary policy tools to cope with the impact. The government has already been ramping up spending on infrastructure.

 

"President Trump is a hard-hitting businessman, and he tries to put pressure on China so he can get concessions from our negotiations. I think that kind of tactic is not going to work with China," Fang Xinghai, vice chairman of China's securities regulator, said at a conference in the port city of Tianjin.

 

Trump's latest escalation of tariffs on China comes after several rounds of talks yielded no progress. U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin last week invited top Chinese officials to discussions.

 

In light of the U.S. action, China is reviewing plans to send a delegation to Washington for new talks, the South China Morning Post reported on Tuesday, citing a government source in Beijing.

 

The Wall Street Journal reported that Beijing was considering sending Vice Commerce Minister Wang Shouwen to trade talks this month but not Vice Premier Liu He, a senior official who is close to China's president.

 

U.S. Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross said on Tuesday the next step on holding "constructive negotiations" was up to China.

"So the question about whether or when to have a discussion is very importantly in their ballpark," Ross told CNBC.

 

Fang told the Tianjin forum that he hopes the two sides can sit down and talk, but added that the latest U.S. move has "poisoned" the atmosphere.

 

The European Union trade chief said the tariff issues between the two should be resolved through the World Trade Organization. The EU and the United States have declared a truce in their own trade dispute while they negotiate.

 

"Trade wars are not good and they are not easy to win, and this escalation is of course very unfortunate," European Trade Commissioner Cecilia Malmstrom told reporters, echoing one of Trump's catch phrases that trade wars were easy to win.

 

China's yuan currency <CNY=CFXS> slipped against the dollar on Tuesday after news of the U.S. measures. It has weakened by about 6.0 percent since mid-June, offsetting the 10 percent tariff rate by a considerable margin.

 

U.S. stock markets opened higher and the Nasdaq index was up 1 over 1 percent by mid-morning.

 

(Reporting by Steve Holland, David Lawder, Ginger Gibson, Eric Beech, David Shepardson, Yawen Chen; Additional reporting by Kevin Yao in TIANJIN, John Ruwitch in SHANGHAI and Christian Shepherd, Michael Martina and Ryan Woo in BEIJING; Editing by Clive McKeef, Kim Coghill and Susan Thomas)

 

-- © Copyright Reuters 2018-09-19

Hopefully western countries wake up and invest in automation, as in manufacturing robots, to replace the commie sweatshop products enabling China's economical invasion to the 3rd world.

8 minutes ago, DrTuner said:

Hopefully western countries wake up and invest in automation, as in manufacturing robots, to replace the commie sweatshop products enabling China's economical invasion to the 3rd world.

Yes, that will get the workers back to work.

5 minutes ago, stevenl said:

Yes, that will get the workers back to work.

Nothing will, the 4th industrial revolution is well underway. But it'll keep the commies in bay.

 

Damn, that rhymed.

 

https://www.weforum.org/agenda/archive/fourth-industrial-revolution

58 minutes ago, stevenl said:

Yes, that will get the workers back to work.

Many of them, if they choose to train for skilled positions.

9 minutes ago, lannarebirth said:

Many of them, if they choose to train for skilled positions.

I totally disagree with DrTuner's position, but do agree with this 'Nothing will, the 4th industrial revolution is well underway. '.

 

Of course manufacturing robots don't bring American workers back to work.

Edited September 19, 20187 yr by stevenl

Just now, stevenl said:

I totally disagree with DrTurner's position, but do agree with this 'Nothing will, the 4th industrial revolution is well underway. '.

 

Of course manufacturing robots don't bring American workers back to work.

 

It will bring manufacturers, servicers and operators of robots back to work, won't it? And maybe allow for the transitioning of displaced workers into other fields of work:

 

 

There's a lot of debate about the future of work: https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2018/09/future-of-jobs-2018-things-to-know

 

Personally I think greed will win and the number of human jobs will be minimized to maximize the profit from automation, leading to massive unemployment, restlessnes and wars. Followed by SkyNet and Arnie-lookalike terminators. 

11 minutes ago, DrTuner said:

There's a lot of debate about the future of work: https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2018/09/future-of-jobs-2018-things-to-know

 

Personally I think greed will win and the number of human jobs will be minimized to maximize the profit from automation, leading to massive unemployment, restlessnes and wars. Followed by SkyNet and Arnie-lookalike terminators. 

 

Probably. I'm glad I won't live to see it. I'm sad that my children may.

 

"When ya' ain't got nothin', you got nothin' to lose"

18 minutes ago, DrTuner said:

There's a lot of debate about the future of work: https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2018/09/future-of-jobs-2018-things-to-know

 

Personally I think greed will win and the number of human jobs will be minimized to maximize the profit from automation, leading to massive unemployment, restlessnes and wars. Followed by SkyNet and Arnie-lookalike terminators. 

 

Unless, of course, they snap to the fact that there's no market for their products if there's nobody making enough money to buy them.

 

That's where guys like Ford and Westinghouse were eons ahead of their contemporaries (and their counterparts today).  They actually drove up the labor costs.  Partly to attract the best talent.  But also to create customers for their products, knowing that other companies would have to follow suit to find employees. 

 

Edited September 19, 20187 yr by impulse

4 hours ago, stevenl said:

Yes, that will get the workers back to work.

 

3 hours ago, impulse said:

 

Unless, of course, they snap to the fact that there's no market for their products if there's nobody making enough money to buy them.

 

That's where guys like Ford and Westinghouse were eons ahead of their contemporaries (and their counterparts today).  They actually drove up the labor costs.  Partly to attract the best talent.  But also to create customers for their products, knowing that other companies would have to follow suit to find employees. 

 

But then who makes the automaton ??

 

21 minutes ago, davemos said:

 

But then who makes the automaton ??

 

 

They make themselves, silly.

 

Edit:  If they could just make that next quantum leap and develop robots that spend money, we'd all be crap out of luck...

 

Edited September 19, 20187 yr by impulse

5 minutes ago, impulse said:

 

They make themselves, silly.

Aaaand then we're screwed https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Technological_singularity

 

But on the bright side, the China issue will be solved.

Edited September 19, 20187 yr by DrTuner

4 minutes ago, DrTuner said:

Aaaand then we're screwed https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Technological_singularity

 

But on the bright side, the China issue will be solved.

 

I was just thinking of inventing a robot that can spend, and also borrow, money. 

 

They'll make movies about some lady coming back from the future to kill me... 

 

But the bankers will have a field day in the meantime.

trump the great negotiator.
no idea of mentalities.
no idea about intercultural management.
he achieves nothing with his blackmail and threats.
Now the Chinese feel the conversation climate poisoned.
Trump completely overestimates his bargaining position.
Now he complains that the countermeasures hurt his voters.
What a fool, he didn't saw the reactions ahead.

 

Good Luck America, time to get a new leader.

Geezer

On 9/18/2018 at 5:41 PM, webfact said:

Beijing will impose levies on a total of 5,207 U.S. products - ranging from liquefied natural gas to certain types of aircraft as well as cocoa powder and frozen vegetables

 

Kind of interesting that the US exports cocoa powder, considering it does not produce cocoa.  A situation such as this opens opportunity for someone else to come in, for example Ivory Coast (Cote d'Ivoire), the world's top cocoa producer, could develop food processing facilities to manufacture consumer cocoa products from their own crops, and bankroll it with the $$$ they'll get from Chinese contracts.

 

China's influence in the world is actively expanding.

 

 

19 hours ago, tomacht8 said:

trump the great negotiator.
no idea of mentalities.
no idea about intercultural management.
he achieves nothing with his blackmail and threats.
Now the Chinese feel the conversation climate poisoned.
Trump completely overestimates his bargaining position.
Now he complains that the countermeasures hurt his voters.
What a fool, he didn't saw the reactions ahead.

 

 

Still, a great relief from decades of "trade negotiators" who were so worried about cultural sensitivity that they allowed our trading partners to piss all over us.

 

I put "trade negotiators" in quotes because I'd hardly characterize them as negotiators.

 

Just taking Jack Ma (a concurrent thread to this one) and AliExpress as an example, look up how much it costs to send a 1kg e-commerce product from China to the USA versus how much it costs to sell and ship that same 1kg e-commerce product from the USA to China.  Then tell me you think it's a culture thing...

 

 Look up e-packet for details...

Edited September 20, 20187 yr by impulse

I hope this becomes a trend: 

 

https://money.cnn.com/video/technology/business/2018/08/28/gopro-ceo-nick-woodman-samuel-burke-china-tariffs.cnnmoney/index.html

 

And the US sorts out it's ridiculous postal fees. I'd rather spend a little bit of extra $ on products having a "Guaranteed not made in China".