WASHINGTON (BRAIN) — President Trump proposed late Thursday an additional $100 billion in punitive tariffs against Chinese imports, suggesting the president is looking to penalize approximately $400 billion in Chinese goods. About $505 billion in Chinese goods were imported into the U.S. in 2017.
The additional tariffs are in response to China imposing tariffs on $50 billion of imported U.S. goods, which itself was the Chinese response to Trump's initial punitive tariff proposal. That initial proposal included approximately 1,300 import categories valued at an estimated $50 billion.
Shortly after Trump's announcement, U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer clarified the announcement, saying the tariffs would be levied on an additional $100 billion of imports rather than the president was looking for $100 billion in additional tariffs.
This suggests the U.S. will now levy tariffs on a total of $150 billion of Chinese imports, or on about a third of the Chinese products being imported. However, Lighthizer did not clarify the extent of the new round of tariffs in his news release Friday morning.
But Lighthizer did note that "any additional tariffs proposed will be subject to a similar public comment process as the proposed tariffs announced on April 3, 2018. No tariffs will go into effect until the respective process is complete."
While consumer goods, like clothing, shoes and bikes, were left out of the initial $50 billion tariff list released this week, the size of Trump's retaliatory move, targeting $100 billion additional import categories, suggests that some consumer goods will be affected.
Imports of bikes and components were mostly unaffected by Trump's initial tariff action spelled out in Tuesday's list, but it's more likely these additional tariffs may be leveled against bike-related imports.
