CHINA/TARIFFS/TRADE DEALS/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT: “President Donald Trump said Thursday [8-1-19] he will ramp up the trade war against China by imposing a 10 percent tariff on roughly $300 billion worth of Chinese imports that haven’t already been hit with penalties. The new tariff attack, which Trump said will take effect on Sept. 1, would have a more direct impact on U.S. consumers because the goods targeted include clothes, toys, cell phones, electronics and other retail items. Trump said in a series of tweets Thursday that China has failed to deliver on promises to buy more U.S. farm goods and to stop the flow of the powerful painkiller fentanyl into the United States…U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin returned this week from a brief round of talks in Shanghai, where the two sides failed to announce a major breakthrough in the negotiations. The two sides agreed to meet again in September. Trump’s move to increase trade pressure on Beijing comes just a day after the Federal Reserve cut interest rates for the first time in more than a decade.”
-Adam Behsudi and Doug Palmer, “Trump says he’ll hit China with new tariffs,” Politico, August 1, 2019 6:04 pm