The US is expected to announce the imposition of another round of tariffs on $200 billion worth of Chinese goods.
US President Donald Trump said on Friday that he was ready to implement another round of tariffs on China.
Thursday marked the end of a comment period in which the US Trade Representative’s Office was accepting public comments on the potential tariff list. However, there were signs that the administration might not make a decision for at least a few more days.
National Economic Council director Larry Kudlow said Friday that the administration would review the 5,914 comments received during the comment period.
During a Bloomberg Television interview, Kudlow said “we’ll make a decision on the volume, on the rate, on the timing [of any tariffs], I don’t want to get ahead of that curve, it’s out there.”
This comes after the US imposed 25% tariffs on $50 billion of Chinese tech products earlier this year. In response, China imposed tariffs on $50 billion of critical goods such as pork, aluminum, steel piping, fruit, and nuts.
If the US were to implement the full $200 billion of tariffs, it would be the biggest shot fired thus far in the trade war, and China would almost certainly reciprocate with more tariffs on US goods. However, since China only imports $130 billion of US goods, they wouldn’t be able to respond tit-for-tat, but could use other avenues to reciprocate.
Trump has indicated that he is ready to implement tariffs on the full $500 billion of US imports from China.
“I’m not doing this for politics — I’m doing this to do the right thing for our country,” Trump said. “We have been ripped off by China for a long time.”
Despite Trump’s objections, many are unsure of what tangible outcomes the administration is aiming for.
“In forming an assessment of what comes next in the escalation of tit-for-tat trade restrictions between the U.S. and China, we need to have a view on the goals of Trump trade policy,” said a Barclays economist in a report. “Unfortunately, we admit that we lack a clear understanding of the U.S. administration’s primary objective.”
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