What Does This Mean? Trump asks USTR to…”identify $200 billion in Chinese goods for additional tariffs at 10% rate”

That’s part headline from CNBC.

President Donald Trump has requested the United States Trade Representative to identify $200 billion worth of Chinese goods for additional tariffs at a rate of 10 percent.

The new duties will go into effect “if China refuses to change its practices, and also if it insists on going forward with the new tariffs that it has recently announced,” the White House said in a statement late on Monday.

The move came after the Trump administration on Friday announced that the U.S. would impose a 25 percent tariff on up to $50 billion of Chinese products. Tariffs on an initial list of goods worth some $34 billion will kick in on July 6.

Upate, 5:06PM Pacific: And here is the press release, via Christina Wilkie:

26 thoughts on “What Does This Mean? Trump asks USTR to…”identify $200 billion in Chinese goods for additional tariffs at 10% rate”

  1. PeakTrader

    It means China doesn’t want a fair trading relationship with the U.S..

    China needs unfair trading to keep its masses employed, and take advantage of the U.S. anyway it can.

    Even liberal/socialists understand this.

    1. PeakTrader

      I guess, Communist China believes, since U.S. economic policies are much more successful, it has to cheat and steal from the U.S. to offset its economic failures and reduce U.S. success.

      1. pgl

        Our policies are more successful? Your master – Trump – is saying just the opposite. He says we are losing. Of course he is stooopid but then you support him 100%. Funny thing – your defenses of his stooopid policies are also really dumb.

        Of course any one who pretends to be for a free market would never characterize trade as cheating and stealing. You seriously need to stop learning economics from Fox and Friends.

    2. Moses Herzog

      PeakIgnorance
      Wasting my time interacting with you at all, but that is a large blanket statement you are making there as regards “liberals”. This gets back to the old “scalpel” metaphor President Obama used to use. This is why Menzie (rightly) has been hitting on ZTE, the 5G “backdoor” issue, and there is probably a litany of others we could rundown with very little research. That might even make a great post by Menzie, if there wasn’t the high chance people would misinterpret Menzie’s “scalpel post” on national security issues and justified punitive acts on China as reinforcement of the current dumb-a$$ policies.

      Steel and aluminum are not the items you want to use. I have an issue with visas attained by bribery and large commercial real estate purchases by some Chinese who have ties to the Chinese Politburo and corrupt oligarchs—similar to Trump’s Russian friends in his hotels:
      https://newrepublic.com/article/143586/trumps-russian-laundromat-trump-tower-luxury-high-rises-dirty-money-international-crime-syndicate

      How the American system of law lets those Russians mentioned in the New Republic article purchase real estate AT ALL says volumes about how the American legal system operates currently—>> and it would do much more positive for the world if THAT were disallowed than aluminum or steel tariffs. But I guess Trump has bribed enough state attorney-generals that he needn’t worry about Russian mob criminals wandering his real estate properties in Florida and New York.

      While I admit there is a sadistic portion of me (as regards Trump), that enjoys these new potential tariffs being announced, in the sense that if the impact of this hits before 2020 it drastically increases the chance the Orange Menace will be booted from office. The problem is how many Americans will suffer in the meantime. Not to mention it’s still a dice game in the sense he has 40% of the electorate out there (the same ilk as you Peak) that is going to vote for him even if the man put a swastika band on his arm tomorrow morning and wore it until November 3, 2020. Including some Jews, who apparently don’t remember who the brown shirts were and how that relates to “ICE” goons.

    3. pgl

      Keeping its “masses” employed is a bad thing? And you used to pretend you were for full employment. Go figure. I guess you would call those immigrant children being taken from their parents “masses” because they are not white. Yep PeakRacist!

  2. 2slugbaits

    It means that “winning a trade war” is going to be a lot harder than our simpleton president believed. He hasn’t quite figured out that this isn’t the NYC real estate market.

    Trump needs to make sure his dimwitted base keeps watching the latest shiny object and hoping that they don’t discover class consciousness.

    Even conservative/reactionaries understand this.

    But apparently failed bankers and trolls don’t.

  3. randomworker

    It means nothing, because it can and will be changed in 5 minutes. The Dotard doesnt even know what it means. Hes pretending hes fighting a “trade war” for the entertainment of his base.

    1. CoRev

      randomworker: “It means nothing, because it can and will be changed in 5 minutes.” Actually not 5 minutes but sometime before the mid-term elections. He has already negotiated a $70B increase in promised China trade of US products. He is leveraging that amount for a bigger increase by another threat. Sometine before the elections he probably accept the latest Chinese offer and declare victory. Another promise kept.

      If that does not happen then we are in agreement, he is a dotard, however, others calling him that have been proven wrong.

      1. pgl

        You do realize Trump can write down whatever stupid figure he wants to. That by itself changes nothing. Now actual policies may impact exports and imports but Team Trump is even less competent than you in terms of modeling this stuff out.

      2. 2slugbaits

        CoRev He is leveraging that amount for a bigger increase by another threat.

        I think that fits the legal definition of blackmail.

        already negotiated a $70B increase in promised China trade of US products.

        As usual, you got the story wrong. The Chinese agreed to a $70B increase conditioned on Trump backing off the $50B tariff threat. The Chinese said the agreement (not a promise) was “null and void” if Trump did not follow through on ditching the $50B tariff. In any event, the Chinese outsmarted Trump on this one because the USTR conceded that China was only making the offer because they intended to re-export the US imports, and the net effect on the overall US trade balance would have been zilch. In other words, the Chinese were going to re-export American imports to the very customers to whom we would have exported those same commodities absent the agreement with the Chinese. Oh sure…Trump is a master negotiator!!!

        Another Trump blunder. And another example of Trump pulling the wool over the eyes of his clueless supporters.

        1. CoRev

          2slugs, yes I knew about the caveat, but we are still in negotiations. You seem to think offers have end dates while talks continue. Maybe, maybe not, we’ll wait and see. You were doing fine until your TDS hit again.

          1. baffling

            corev, if you knew about the caveat, then you must have been aware that your statement was false? you do understand the difference between true and false? meaning your statement was not correct. so i take it from your reply that you knew your statement was not correct when you wrote it, but you wrote it anyways-and presented it as factual-to support your argument. ladies and gentlemen, that is what a political hack does.

          2. 2slugbaits

            CoRev Then why did you say the Chinese had “promised” to increase imports from the US? I don’t think the Chinese or anyone else is in the habit of promising to do something that is still in negotiation. In any event, you knew at the time you posted that whatever deal might have been in the works was no longer operative (to use a famous GOP term) since Trump doubled-down (actually, quadrupled-down) on the original tariff threat.

          3. baffling

            corev is called out for a lie, or stupidity, take your pick. and the best he can reply is to call me a troll! nice. notice he did not deny he was a liar or stooped.

        2. CoRev

          2slugs, yo are again letting your TDS interfere with your logic. If you knew the negotiations were incomplete then you know all offers are still open, even it withdrawn, until negotiations conclude. Let me really make your head spin. It looks like ZTE may jump back on that negotiation table.

  4. Benlu

    It just means China and US relationships(as well as the rest of the world) would have to adjust for new levels of equilibrium.

  5. Moses Herzog

    Near midnight Chicago time, checking those INO quotes. Corn and Soybeans not looking good. The August lean hogs looks surprisingly stable. I’m assuming the hog futures are doing better than corn and soybeans for a valid reason. Maybe Menzie has said before but at this moment I am completely missing it. Maybe the boys at Bloomberg can fill me in as I do my night owl net prowl.

  6. Moses Herzog

    Gee, I wonder if that Iowa State University economist checked with CoRev and “Princeton” Kopits to make certain these figures were correct?? After all “Princeton” Kopits is nearly as skilled at math as he is elementary statistics terminology.
    https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/business/2018/06/17/china-tariffs-u-s-soybeans-could-cost-iowa-farmers-up-624-million/708477002

    Now, for those of you nearer to the brainless segment of the IQ spectrum, I’d like to inform you that what Trump’s Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue is talking about in that USA Today article is government subsidies (some people call that welfare when it’s going to poor blacks or going to poor hispanics, etc) for the American farmer. We call it “subsidies” when it goes to business and large corporations. You know, the “Job creators” like Harley Davidson, so they can move jobs to Thailand after Republicans give them their suuuuuuhbsidies. (NOT welfare, damn it!!! Don’t you call “subsidies” welfare your Satanists!!!! Mike Huckabee smells the devil and sulfur inside you people who call “subsidies” welfare!!!! Get behind us Satanic devil-child!!!!) Now, government “subsidies” NOT welfare you sodomitic Satanist!!!! are not exactly considered to be a “core tenet” of “free market” capitalism. But if you are a complete imbecile of the CoRev, PeakIgnorance, “Princeton” Kopits variety of imbecile, I’m sure you can figure out some mental gymnastics that would make Trump subsidizing the American farmer into Milton Friedman’s dearest wishes for America, psychically sent down to the Orange Menace from Friedman’s heavenly cloud.

    1. pgl

      “Iowa farmers could lose up to $624 million, depending on how long the tariffs are in place and the speed producers can find new markets for their soybeans, said Chad Hart, an Iowa State University economist.”

      I bet Chad Hart has a well specified model behind this prediction. Of course CoRev will argue that his model is somehow flawed. But we are still waiting for CoRev to publish his model of the world soybean market in the American Economic Review. Maybe CoRev will get a Nobel Prize joining Eugene Fama in this distinction. Oh wait – CoRev still has not read Fama’s seminal 1970 paper!

  7. pgl

    Do we have to fact check every press release from this White House:

    https://www.bea.gov/international/index.htm#trade

    BEA says our bilateral trade balance deficit with China in 2017 was $336 billion. Yes the merchandise deficit was $376 billion but I guess this White House does not know that the services surplus was $40 billion.

    Oh wait – they do know that but they continue to spread their usual disinformation.

  8. Julian Silk

    It’s just more stuff to pick on. It may also mean that they add tariffs arbitrarily on goods they have already put tariffs on if they can’t find markets to bully. A likely case is Goldwind, a Chinese supplier for renewable energy.

  9. pgl

    “Baffled, troll, please add some value.” – CoRev

    Let me translate this. CoRev is very angry that baffled caught CoRev in a lie. Baffled – please permit CoRev to lie without interruption!

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