WASHINGTON: President
Trump said he would impose about $60 billion worth of annual tariffs on Chinese imports on Thursday as the
White House moved to punish China for what it says is a pattern of coopting American technology and trade secrets and robbing companies of jobs and billions of dollars in revenue.
The measures come as the White House grants a long list of exemptions to American allies from steel and aluminum tariffs that go into effect on Friday, including the EU, which has lobbied aggressively and publicly for relief from the trade action. “The word that I want to use is reciprocal,” Trump said in announcing the tariffs in the Diplomatic Room of the White House.
“If they charge us, we charge them the same thing.” The China tariffs are his strongest trade action yet against a country he has branded an “economic enemy.” They fulfill one of his core campaign pledges, to demand more reciprocal deals with trading partners around the world. But coupled with the administration’s decision to exempt the European Union, South Korea, Brazil, Canada, and Mexico from the tariffs on cheap metals, the action demonstrates how much Trump’s nationalist trade agenda is really targeted at a single country: China.
“What the US is doing is strategically defending itself from China’s economic aggression,” said Peter Navarro, director of the White House National Trade Council and an architect of the measures. “We repeatedly aired our concerns about China as anonmarket economy.” The tariffs, which the US trade representative will publish within 15 days, will target 1,300 lines of Chinese goods — everything from shoes and clothing to electronics, administration officials said.
Chinese officials had earlier warned the US of potential retaliation on US measures. “China will not sit idly to see its legitimate rights damaged and must take all necessary measures to resolutely defend its legitimate rights,” the commerce ministry in Beijing said in a statement on its website.
