11:11 – New Washington salvo in the trade war against Beijing



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The United States fired a new salvo in the trade war with China by compiling an additional list of imported Chinese products worth $ 200 billion a year that they threaten to tax as early as September. [19659002"FormorethanayeartheTrumpadministrationhaspatientlyaskedChinatoenditsunfairpracticesopenitsmarketsandengageincompetitionbasedonmarketforces"saidTuesdayUSTradeRepresentative(USTR)RobertLighthizerinastatement

"Unfortunately, China has not changed its behavior (…) and this threatens the future of the US economy. to respond to our legitimate concerns, China has begun to retaliate against US products, such actions are unjustifiable, "he said.

Due to legal processes and consultation, taxes do not may not come into force until September if the United States decide to go to the end of their approach, said Tuesday to the press officials of the Trump administration.

These new measures are not a surprise because the President The US had warned that it would do so if Beijing opted for the escalation after the implementation last week of the first US protectionist measures on $ 34 billion of Chinese products.

The initiative announced Tuesday, which provides for the introduction of tariffs of 10% on the products concerned, initiates the process that will lead to their application if the two world economic powers do not find by that time a common ground.

China has not Wednesday, warning it would be forced to retaliate against new US tariffs.

In a statement, the Chinese Ministry of Commerce Commerce found "totally unacceptable" Washington's new threats and denounced the "irrational behavior" of the United States as well as "commercial hegemonism."

– "Destroy" –

A little earlier, the vice Minister of Commerce, Li Chenggang, accused the United States of wanting to "destroy" trade between the two countries.

Beijing had accused Washington last week, after the first flush of US measures, for triggering " the largest trade war in economic history. "

In total, it is 250 billion Chinese products imported into the United States that could now be affected in total, 16 billion to be added to the initial 34 billion and then again the 200 billion announced on Tuesday. Donald Trump has already threatened not to stop there and to hit more than 400 billion Chinese imports.

These represented a total of 505 billion dollars in 2017 and the balance of trade between the two countries was translated last year by a deficit of 375 billion dollars at the expense of the United States.

Added taxes of 10% on imports of aluminum and 25% on steel deals targeting China and other countries.

These new Sino-US frictions sparked concern over Asian stock markets, which faltered on Wednesday. The Shanghai Stock Exchange fell sharply (-1.76%), as did those of Hong Kong (-1.29%) and Tokyo (-1.19%).

"The market was not expecting the second batch of tariffs to come so quickly and this has eroded investor confidence," said Central China Securities badyst Zhang Gang.

– Leather and paper –

Washington accuses Beijing since last summer of "forced technology transfers" by forcing American companies that want to sell in China to create joint ventures that force them to find Chinese partners, the latter thus benefiting of American technology. The Trump administration accuses China of "theft" and asks it to further open its market by ending customs and legal barriers.

In concrete terms, the administration will now hold hearings and investigations into the impact of these additional tariffs, which will target products such as fish, tires, leather goods, wood, paper and chemicals. The process will take up to two months and will be accompanied by hearings that will allow the sectors concerned to argue for or against the imposition of these new tariffs.

The dispute over intellectual property with China is one of the fronts opened by Donald Trump in his protectionist offensive.

In addition to the steel and aluminum taxes that apply to virtually all US trading partners, he is considering attacking the automobile sector by targeting German imports in particular

hs-hr-jld-ehl / bar / cac

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