CHINA/FEDERAL RESERVE/TARIFFS/TAXES/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT: “President Trump said he would increase taxes on all Chinese goods and demanded that American companies stop doing business with China as his anger toward Beijing and his Federal Reserve chair boiled over on Friday [8-23-19]. Twelve hours after China said it would retaliate against Mr. Trump’s next round of tariffs by raising taxes on American goods, Mr. Trump said he would bolster existing tariffs on $250 billion worth of Chinese goods to 30 percent from 25 percent on Oct. 1. And he said the United States would tax an additional $300 billion worth of Chinese imports at a 15 percent rate, rather than the 10 percent he had initially planned. Those levies go into effect on Sept. 1…In a series of angry tweets earlier in the day, Mr. Trump called for American companies to cut ties with Beijing and said the United States would be economically stronger without China. Those comments sent stocks plunging, helping push the market to its fourth straight weekly loss. The president also called the Fed chair, Jerome H. Powell, an ‘enemy’ of the United States and compared him to President Xi Jinping of China, his trade nemesis, after Mr. Powell declined to signal an imminent cut in interest rates.”
–Alan Rappeport and Keith Bradsher, “Trump Says He Will Raise Existing Tariffs on Chinese Goods to 30%,” The New York Times online, August 23, 2019