CHINA/ECONOMY/TARIFFS/TRADE DEALS/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT: “A week ago, the United States and China looked as if they were going to reach a deal to end their trade war. Today, they are trying to salvage their many months of negotiations. Vice Premier Liu He, a senior Chinese economic policy maker, is set to begin two days of negotiations in Washington on Thursday [5-9-19] aimed at heading off an escalation. On Sunday [5-5-19], President Trump accused China of trying to renegotiate the nearly finished trade deal and threatened to impose more tariffs on Friday [5-10-19]. Chinese officials have said they would respond, without specifying how. The prospect of a deepening trade war between the world’s two largest economies has scared investors and darkened the global economic outlook…China has options if Mr. Trump goes ahead with his threat, including ways to strike at American businesses that go beyond tariffs…President Trump said on Sunday that American tariffs of 10 percent on $200 billion in Chinese goods, imposed last September, would rise to 25 percent on Friday. The tariffs would take effect just after midnight on Thursday, meaning the United States could wake up on Friday to an even more damaging trade war.”
–Keith Bradsher, “Trump Could Raise Tariffs on China. Here’s How China Could Respond.,” The New York Times online, May 9, 2019