[ad_1]
Washington – Despite alarmist warnings and market nervousness, the United States and China will step into the trade war with Friday's entry into force of reciprocal tariffs on tens of billions dollars of goods.
US tariffs of 25% on 34 billion Chinese imports will affect 818 products including cars, aircraft components or computer hard drives while sparing popular goods such as mobile phones or televisions. They will be effective Thursday at midnight (0400 GMT), confirmed Thursday President Donald Trump to reporters.
Immediately thereafter, Chinese customs duties on an equivalent amount of US imports will be applied. They will affect agricultural products including soybeans, which are highly dependent on the Chinese market, the automotive sector, and seafood products such as lobsters.
" China will not give in to the threat or blackmail ," said Thursday in Beijing the spokesman of the Chinese Ministry of Commerce, Gao Feng.
In total, US $ 50 billion of annual Chinese imports will be affected by US measures to compensate for what the Trump administration considers to be the " theft " of intellectual property and technologies.
The second batch of 16 billion Chinese imports, which is currently under further review by USTR Robert Lighthizer, will soon enter into force, said Donald Trump, referring to " in two weeks ".
Beijing, which has decided to replicate identically, also plans to hit a total of $ 50 billion in US imports, with an initial list of $ 34 billion worth of products.
The world's first two economic powers should not stop there since Donald Trump asked Robert Lighthizer " to identify $ 200 billion in Chinese goods for additional taxes of 10% " .
And the US president has said he is willing to tax $ 200 billion of additional goods " if China raises its tariff again " in reaction.
These measures could therefore bring to 450 billion the value of Chinese products taxed, the vast majority of imports from the Asian giant (505.6 billion dollars in 2017).
Experts warned for months against the potential damage of such a trade confrontation, not only on the US economy but also on the global economy.
– Investments at stake –
US companies have already indicated to the US Central Bank (Fed) that they are already feeling the impact with rising prices as well as " the reduction or postponement of investment projects due to uncertainties surrounding trade policy "said Thursday the US Central Bank in the minutes of its last meeting in June.
In an badysis entitled " the wrong approach ", the American Chamber of Commerce estimated " approximately $ 75 billion " the amount of US exports affected to date by the retaliation measures of the United States trading partners.
She cites particularly six states (Alabama, Michigan, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Texas and Wisconsin) particularly affected, all of whom had voted in favor of Donald Trump during the last presidential election in 2016.
These warnings, however, leave the American president unmoved who once again swept the arguments on Tuesday in a tweet.
" The economy is probably doing much better than in the past, before we settled the problem of unfair trade agreements with each country ," he said. " A majority of countries agree that they must change but no one has ever asked ," he added.
The day before, the US Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross had said that the forecasts for the future slowdown in US economic growth were " premature and probably inaccurate ".
" The direct effects of customs duties, imposed so far, will not fundamentally change the US macroeconomic situation ," said Robert Palombi, an badyst at S & P Global Ratings.
" However, the escalation of trade tensions between the two largest economies could have real global ramifications and sow the seeds of a significant slowdown in economic growth ", a- he added.
On Thursday, soybean prices hit a nine-year low in Chicago a few hours before the expected US and China announcements.
Source link
