Trade

China Announces Retaliatory Tariffs, Trump Completely Melts Down

Written by SK Ashby

We knew that China would retaliate for Trump's upcoming tariffs on all remaining Chinese goods; tariffs that will be imposed in two tranches of about $150 billion on September 1st and December 15th, and now we know how they will retaliate.

The Chinese government announced this morning that they will impose retaliatory tariffs on $75 billion in American goods by increasing current tariffs on American agriculture and re-imposing tariffs on other goods such as cars and trucks.

From CNBC:

The Chinese State Council said it decided to slap tariffs ranging from 5% to 10% on $75 billion U.S. goods in two batches effective on Sept. 1 and Dec. 15. Those dates happens to be when President Donald Trump's latest tariffs on Chinese goods are to take effect.

It also said a 25% tariff will be imposed on U.S. cars and a 5% on auto parts and components, which will go into effect on Dec.15. China had paused these tariffs in April. [...]

"In response to the measures by the U.S., China was forced to take countermeasures," the state council said in a statement.

Trump loaded up his diaper in response to the news this morning and unleashed a series of tweets that tanked the market even further.


I'm sure I don't have to tell you this, but Trump does not have the power to "hereby order" American companies to do anything at all.

Trump is an unhinged ignoramus and he's literally going to tweet us into a recession. The market dropped by 300 points after China announced a fresh round of retaliation and by 500 points when Trump threw a temper tantrum.

Depending on what Trump does next, all of our expectations for how his trade war will effect the economy could be obsolete. And we don't know what he will do, but it's possible he'll impose all of his upcoming tariffs on September 1st rather than wait to impose half of them after the Christmas shopping season. There is no legal mechanism that would prevent him from doing that. We'll just have to wait and see how he plans to fuck us all.

I wasn't planning to write anything today, but I couldn't let this pass by. It's too big and important to everything we've discussed here.