Since the beginning of his presidency Trump has steadily increased the tariffs on all imported products. He has recently increased the tariffs on all products from China exclusively. A few days ago Trump ordered his administration to increase some products to be tariffed from 10% to 25%. Some of theses tariffs are even causing companies to leave the country instead of enter. Many including the Treasury secretary disagree with the increase in tariffs.
The increase in tariffs are planned to be implemented on over $200 billion of Chinese goods like fish, oil, chemicals and other products These tariffs were put in place to change China’s trade practices, and because of the decrease in value of China’s currency. The Chinese say they will not change their practices and that they will retaliate to safeguard their legal rights if further increased. China has also put in its own tariffs against the United States and are causing many farmers and businesses to suffer in the U.S. as well. Tension between the U.S. and China has steadily grown.
- Do you believe we are too extreme on teriffing China?
- Why would the U.S want China to change its trade practices?
- Could these tariffs soon cause conflict between the U.S. and China?
I do believe that the U.S. is being too harsh on China. Also, these extreme tariffs could lead to China slowing or stopping trade completely with the United States. This would not play out well for the U.S. considering that China is one of our top trade partners. I believe that the U.S, is scared of China overtaking our economy because of how fast theirs has been growing over the past couple of years.
ReplyDelete-Peyton O.
DeleteI would condemn how President Trump is treating China and other countries with regard to tariffs if it weren't for Trump's stated goal. China is one of the top importers of American goods, but the US is a far larger importer of Chinese goods, which will surely hurt China more in the long run. President Trump's plan, according to his own tweets, is to either get rid of unfair tariffs against the US or even reduce or get rid of all tariffs. As I said, I am normally against this "tariff war" as people have called it, but this may end up helping America (and maybe even other countries as well) in the long-term.
ReplyDeleteAt the least, this should balance the trade deficit we have with China, which everyone from Trump himself to publications like CNN have announced to be in the hundreds of billions of dollars per year.
However, a good question is brought up here. This may lead to conflict between the US and China, which makes this move potentially dangerous. I don't think a military conflict will result from this, but tensions between America and China may rise.
-Jesse F.
Addendum to clarify how in the world it makes sense that placing tariffs could result in removing tariffs: As I suggested, it appears that tariffs on China would hurt them much more than Chinese tariffs would hurt the US; theoretically, this could mean that China would be effectively forced to "come to the table"--as Trump would say--to agree to reduce tariffs on both sides. If that were to happen, Trump would get his way, and China's economy would be saved. This concept is why I am not really against Trump's tariff policy here.
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