Administration Officials Say Higher Tariffs on $200 Billion in Goods May Move China to Bend; China Disagrees
The U.S. trade representative said increasing the tariff level on $200 billion in Chinese imports (see 1808010070) could "could encourage China to change its harmful policies." China responded with its own threat. "We would advise the United States to correct its attitude and not try to engage in blackmail. This won’t work on China,” Geng Shuang, a Foreign Ministry spokesman, said Aug. 1, according to Reuters. "Secondly, we would advise the U.S. side to return to reason, and not blindly let emotions affect their decisions, because in the end this will harm themselves."
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Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross, speaking on Fox Business on Aug. 2, downplayed the harm higher tariffs could cause in the U.S., and said they are aimed at making it so painful for China that it won't want to continue its practices. "Let's put it into arithmetic perspective: 25 percent on $200 billion, if it comes to pass, is $50 billion a year,” he said. “Fifty billion dollars a year on an $18 trillion or so economy is three-tenths of one percent. It's not something that's going to be cataclysmic."