U.S. President Donald Trump and China’s President Xi Jinping attend an event for business leaders at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing on November 9, 2017.
Nicolas Asfouri | AFP | Getty Images
Former President Donald Trump plans to escalate the U.S.-China trade war he started during his first term as president if he is re-elected to office in November.
The GOP front-runner confirmed in an interview broadcast Sunday that he is considering a plan to impose tariffs of 60% or more on Chinese goods in his potential second term.
“We have to do it,” Trump said in an interview on Fox’s “Sunday Morning Futures.”
The Washington Post first reported that the Trump campaign was considering a theoretical plan for 60% Chinese tariffs.
On Sunday, the former president said he could go even higher: “Maybe it will be more.”
Aside from China, the former president has announced he would impose a blanket 10% tariff on all U.S. imports, despite widespread criticism that it could hurt consumers.
Former UN Ambassador Nikki Haley, Trump’s only remaining presidential candidate, criticized this policy proposal because of the impact it would have on American wallets.
“What Donald Trump is planning to do is he’s going to increase every household’s spending by $2,600 a year,” Haley said in a January interview on CNBC’s “Squawk Box,” citing data from the fiscal conservatives National Taxpayers Union.
Their disapproval reflects concerns among Wall Street investors who fear another trade war with China would disrupt markets again.
Starting in 2018, Trump began a wave of $250 billion in tariffs against China. The country then hit back with its own tariffs against the U.S., leading to a years-long economic battle that disrupted global trade dynamics.
Trump’s trade war with China has cost Americans an estimated $195 billion since 2018, according to the American Action Forum, a conservative think tank. According to the US-China Business Council, the economic struggle also led to the loss of more than 245,000 jobs in the US.
At the time, Deutsche Bank estimated that the trade war would lead to trillions in losses on the stock market.
The tariff dispute also left the United States and China, once each other’s largest trading partners, in difficult geopolitical circumstances. President Joe Biden has sought to inflame icy relations throughout his term in office.
Trump has attacked Biden for appeasing China while expressing favorable sentiments toward China’s authoritarian President Xi Jinping.
“I like President Xi a lot,” Trump said on Sunday. “He was a really good friend of mine in my day.”
Trump has praised Xi in the past for the iron grip he maintains over his government and people. In an interview with Fox News’ Sean Hannity in December, Trump said that if re-elected for a second term he would be a dictator “from day one.”
Trump later claimed in an interview broadcast Sunday that he meant he would be “a dictator” on his first day in office, his “first day,” but only for a day. The comment still worried election experts and provided fodder for his opponents.
Source link
2024-02-04 18:49:12
www.cnbc.com