U.S. President Donald Trump ramped up the trade war rhetoric, saying that he’s willing to impose additional tariffs on every Chinese good imported to the U.S. if the situation warrants it.
“I’m ready to go to 500,” President Trump told CNBC’s Joe Kernen in a “Squawk Box” interview today, referring to $505.5 billion–the amount of Chinese imports the U.S. accepted last year versus the $129.9 billion the U.S. exported to China.
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. As usual, not a level playing field…
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 20, 2018
It’s the latest salvo fired by Trump after the U.S. has already imposed tariffs on $34 billion of Chinese goods with China countering with their own retaliatory tariffs.
“I’m not doing this for politics, I’m doing this to do the right thing for our country,” said Trump. “We have been ripped off by China for a long time.”
Trump’s comments regarding trade can typically swing the markets, but the reactions have been mostly subdued with the Dow Jones Industrial Average up about 17 points, the NASDAQ up 30 points and the S&P 500 up half a point as of 11:00 a.m. ET. This could be a sign that the markets are beginning to develop an immunity from the ill effects of trade wars.
“If you believe the market is smarter than persnickety politicians and their highly triggered friendlies, then it would appear that the majority of investors are learning to live with tariffs and rumors of trade wars,” said Forbes contributor Kenneth Rapoza.
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