Trump Gets Last-Minute Earful from Business Before China Tariffs
Some
of America’s most prominent technology companies and retailers made a
last-minute push to convince President Donald Trump to reverse course on a
plan to impose tariffs on $200 billion in Chinese imports.
Members
of the public had until Thursday to comment on the administration’s plan to
slap tariffs on everything from bicycles and baseball gloves to digital
cameras, paving the way for Trump to announce the tariffs as early as Friday.
As of midnight U.S. time, Friday midday in Beijing, the White House had made no
announcement on its intentions.
Trump
in an interview with Bloomberg News last week showed no sign of backing down,
repeating his long-standing complaint that China has taken advantage of the
U.S. and its leaders for decades. “It’s time to stop. We can’t let this
happen,” the president said.
“We
think there’s a high likelihood it happens sometime soon,” said Josh Kallmer, executive vice president for policy at the
Information Technology Industry Council, referring to levies on $200 billion in
goods. “It’s becoming a lot more difficult for the administration to do what it
said it’s trying do, which is minimizing harm to consumers.”
The
U.S. Trade Representative’s office didn’t respond to a request for comment.
On
Thursday, Cisco Systems Inc., Hewlett-Packard Enterprise Co., and other
technology companies sent a letter to U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer urging the administration to avoid imposing more
tariffs. By increasing duties on telecommunications networking gear, the
administration would raise the cost of accessing the Internet and slow the
roll-out of next-generation wireless technologies, the companies said.
Manufacturers
and small and mid-sized firms, in particular, can’t quickly adjust and the
tariffs imposed so far haven’t led to any meaningful concessions, a coalition
of the National Retail Federation and 150 organizations said in separate
comments to Lighthizer. The administration should
cease further tariffs actions and give another shot at talks for a trade deal
with with China, it said.
“Tit-for-tat
tariffs are counterproductive and so far have only produced increased costs for
American businesses, farmers, importers, exporters and consumers,’’ the
coalition said.
The
latest installment of tariffs would bring to $250 billion the total value of
Chinese goods hit with duties, covering nearly half of all imports into the
U.S. last year. Beijing has threatened to retaliate with duties on $60 billion
in American products.
China
will be forced to retaliate if the U.S. ignores resistance in public hearings
and imposes additional tariffs, said Gao Feng, a
Ministry of Commerce spokesman, at a regular briefing on Thursday in Beijing.
The
trade conflict between the world’s two biggest economies shows little sign of
abating, roughly two months after the U.S. imposed its first round of tariffs
on Chinese goods, and negotiations to defuse the tensions have stalled. The
International Monetary Fund has warned that a trade war could undermine the
strongest global upswing in years.
At
public hearings last month, companies warned that fresh duties on Chinese
imports could hike costs and stifle innovation. Almost 350 individuals from
companies, trade associations and other entities testified, with most opposed
to the levies. Many lawmakers, including from Trump’s own Republican party, oppose the president’s zeal for tariffs but have
limited options for curbing such sanctions.
Efforts
to negotiate a U.S.-China truce have proved fruitless. Two days of talks in
Washington in August failed to yield a breakthrough following three rounds of
unsuccessful talks earlier in the year, dimming hopes of a compromise.
The
two nations have maintained contact on a working level since Vice Commerce
Minister Wang Shouwen visited the U.S. last month, Gao said on Thursday.
U.S.
trade officials are juggling a number of high-profile files, in addition to the
China tariffs. Lighthizer has been trying since last
week to reach a deal with Canada on a revised North American Free Trade
Agreement with Mexico, and he heads to Brussels on Monday to meet with EU
officials to discuss the outlines of a trade deal announced in late July.
The
Trump administration may roll out the tariffs on the $200 billion in phases. It
waited about three weeks after announcing in mid-June that it was imposing
tariffs on $34 billion of Chinese goods before they were implemented. The next
stage of tariffs on $16 billion of goods took effect in August.
The
tariffs are intended to punish China for what the Trump administration says are
unfair trading practices, including the forced transfer of intellectual
property from U.S. companies trying to get a foothold in the Chinese market.
Investors
in U.S. assets have generally shrugged off the escalating trade war with China,
said Kristina Hooper, chief global market strategist at Invesco Ltd., which
manages $988 billion in assets. At some point, the duties will start to hurt
American companies, she said.