Trump 'Ready to Go' on Tariffs for $500 Billion Worth of Chinese Imports
President Donald Trump told a CNBC interviewer on July 20 that he's "ready to go to" with tariffs on $500 billion worth of Chinese imports. American Apparel and Footwear Association President and CEO Rick Helfenbein responded to the threat with concern in a news release: "We all want to participate in a trading system that creates more jobs in America and respects our intellectual property, but tariffs will not do this. ... More tariffs will not resolve this conflict -- they will only create inflation, hurt the consumer, and damage the economy."
Trump also tweeted about trade on July 20. "China, the European Union and others have been manipulating their currencies and interest rates lower, while the U.S. is raising rates while the dollars gets stronger and stronger with each passing day -- taking away our big competitive edge," he said. Trump has been complaining about the Federal Reserve's rate-raising, designed to prevent inflation. China cannot match the U.S. tit for tat on tariffs, but it can let its currency float downward, softening the effect of tariffs on its exports.
Trump also tweeted: "Farmers have been on a downward trend for 15 years. The price of soybeans has fallen 50% since 5 years before the Election. A big reason is bad (terrible) Trade Deals with other countries. They put on massive Tariffs and Barriers. Canada charges 275% on Dairy. Farmers will WIN!" Soybean exports grew four years in a row, according to a Farm Bureau analysis. Canada does control how much U.S. dairy enters its country through tariff-rate quotas. Some dairy is imported duty free, but once the quota is reached, there are prohibitive tariffs.
Meanwhile, Peter Navarro, a noted China hawk and prominent trade adviser in the White House, said on CNBC that investors have nothing to fear in the U.S.-China trade dispute. "We have two economies that add up to about $30 trillion," he said July 19, "and the amount of trade we're affecting with the tariffs is a rounding error compared to that. My point is it's much less disruptive than these headlines would suggest." Navarro said the administration is watching both the re-opened steel mills and aluminum smelters and the layoffs at steel-consuming companies. "We look at the chess board," he said.
Sen. Joni Ernst, R-Iowa, responded sharply to Navarro's comments in a press release. "Mr. Navarro, America’s farmers are caught in the crosshairs of this game of ‘chess.’ Offhand comments like the ones that Mr. Navarro made in his interview with CNBC today disregard the people whose livelihoods depend on global trade. In Iowa alone, more than 456,000 jobs are supported by trade, and these new tariffs are threatening $977 million in state exports. That is no ‘rounding error.’ Those are real people -- Iowans -- who are waiting for terms to be negotiated, for new deals to be finalized," she said.