CHINA/TARIFFS/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT: “The White House is ‘very strongly’ considering imposing tariffs on hundreds of billions of dollars more in Chinese goods, President Donald Trump said Tuesday [5-14-19], indicating that trade tensions between Washington and Beijing could ramp up further in coming months. For months, Trump has threatened to move forward with a fourth round of duties as high as 25 percent on roughly $325 billion in Chinese imports. But since Beijing announced plans to retaliate against the U.S. on Monday [5-13-19] morning with higher duties on $60 billion in U.S. exports, the Trump administration has said that those additional duties are a very real possibility…The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative this week began the process of ordering additional tariffs, filing paperwork that outlined a public comment period that must take place before additional duties can be imposed. Because of the mandatory comment process, any decision on further duties is at least six weeks away, which would put it after an expected meeting between Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping in Japan late next month. Many businesses, however, make purchases months in advance. Retail groups and other industries are already beginning to sound the alarm on such a move.”
–Megan Cassella and Caitlin Oprysko, “Trump says more tariffs on China are real possibility,” Politico, May 14, 2019 12:40 pm