6/26/2019

CHINA/G20/TARIFFS/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT: “President Donald Trump said Wednesday [6-26-19] he was prepared to impose additional tariffs on China if talks this week don’t end in progress, but suggested additional duties could start at a lower amount of 10 percent. Trump has already imposed 25 percent tariffs on $250 billion worth of Chinese goods and has been preparing to levy duties on the remaining $325 billion of goods the U.S. imports from the country. In an interview with Maria Bartiromo on Fox Business Network Wednesday morning, the president said he might begin with a 10 percent duty, if his meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping at the G-20 summit does not end well…He also repeated his assertion that American consumers would not pay higher prices because of the duties — a contention that has been debunked by U.S. retailers and importers who purchase the goods and are forced to absorb the tariff markup. Over the past week and a half, more than 300 people testified in Washington before officials at the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative, mostly to plead against the imposition of additional tariffs. Trump said China has devalued its currency to make its exported goods cheaper, so consumers are not facing higher costs.”

Pradnya Joshi, “Trump prepared to impose lower tariffs if China talks fail,” Politico, June 26, 2019 4:34 pm