CHINA/TARIFFS/TRADE WAR/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT: “President Donald Trump announced Monday [9-17-18] that the United States will impose a 10 percent duty on an additional $200 billion of Chinese imports as of next week, quickly escalating a trade war that has hit broad swaths of the global economy…Trump’s latest announcement brings the total amount of Chinese goods hit with tariffs to about $250 billion, or roughly half of the $505 billion that the United States imported from China last year. It also carries through on an announcement his administration made in early July to hit a broad range of Chinese goods with additional levies after Beijing retaliated against an earlier Trump tariff action. Until now, Trump’s tariffs have mostly been on industrial goods but this latest move will be felt much harder by consumers. Trump also said that a second phase — a boost to the tariff rate to 25 percent — will take place at the beginning of 2019. Such a ratcheting up is likely to make it impossible for U.S. companies that rely on Chinese products to absorb the added costs. Retailers and many other business groups recoiled at the announcement, which they said would hit consumers in the pocketbook.”
–Doug Palmer, “Trump to slap tariffs on $200B more Chinese goods,” Politico, Septemer 17, 2018 6:44 pm