Houston Chronicle by Alan Rappeport and Keith Bradsher 8/23/2019
President Donald Trump, angered by Beijing’s decision on Friday to retaliate against his next round of tariffs and furious at his Federal Reserve chair for not doing more to juice the economy, said he would increase taxes on all Chinese goods and demanded that American companies stop doing business with China.
Trump, in a tweet, said he would raise tariffs on $250 billion worth of Chinese goods to 30% from the current rate of 25% beginning Oct. 1. And he said the United States would tax the remaining $300 billion worth of imports at a 15% rate, rather than the 10% he had initially planned. Those levies go into effect on Sept. 1.
“China should not have put new Tariffs on 75 BILLION DOLLARS of United States product (politically motivated!). Starting on October 1st, the 250 BILLION DOLLARS of goods and products from China, currently being taxed at 25%, will be taxed at 30%,†Trump said in a tweet.
In an earlier series of angry Twitter posts, Trump also called for American companies to cut ties with Beijing and said the United States would be economically stronger without China. The president also called the Fed chair, Jerome Powell, an “enemy†of the United States and compared him to President Xi Jinping of China, his trade nemesis, after Powell declined to signal an imminent cut in interest rates.
“My only question is, who is our bigger enemy, Jay Powell or Chairman Xi?†the president tweeted.
Behind the tirade was the growing reality that the type of trade war Trump once called “easy to win†is proving to be more difficult and economically damaging than the president envisioned. Trump’s stiff tariffs on Chinese goods have been met with reciprocal levies, hurting American farmers and companies and contributing to a global slowdown.
On Friday, China said it would increase tariffs on $75 billion worth of American goods, including crude oil, automobiles and farm products like soybeans, pork and corn in response to Trump’s plan to tax another $300 billion worth of Chinese goods in September and December.
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https://www.houstonchronicle.com/business/article/Trump-Says-He-Will-Raise-Existing-Tariffs-on-14374485.php
