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One Republican senator was quick to rip President Donald Trump over his plan announced late Thursday to seek an additional $100 billion in tariffs against Chinese goods.
“Hopefully the President is just blowing off steam again but, if he’s even half-serious, this is nuts.”
“China is guilty of many things, but the President has no actual plan to win right now,” Sen. Ben Sasse, R-Neb., said in a statement.
“He’s threatening to light American agriculture on fire. Let’s absolutely take on Chinese bad behavior, but with a plan that punishes them instead of us. This is the dumbest possible way to do this,” he said.
Sasse’s home state of Nebraska could be particularly hard-hit by retaliatory Chinese tariffs against U.S. agricultural exports.
Earlier Thursday, Trump inflamed fears of a trade war with an announcement that he was seeking $100 billion in tariffs on top of the $50 billion already proposed for certain goods from China. Futures markets immediately slumped on fears that the move will make the already jittery stock market even more volatile. S&P 500 futures ESM8, -0.93% , Dow futures YMM8, -1.05% and Nasdaq-100 futures NQM8, -1.02% were all down about 1% Thursday night.
Read Trump’s statement requesting $100 billion in additional China tariffs
Sasse wasn’t the only one to speak out Thursday against the new tariffs.
Dean Garfield, chief executive of the tech-industry lobbying group Information Technology Industry Council, called the new proposal “irresponsible and destabilizing.”
“We need the U.S and China to come to the table and identify solutions to these serious problems. We call on both sides to halt unproductive and escalatory rhetoric, recognizing that these words and actions have global consequences,” he said in a statement.
Richard Haass, president of the nonpartisan Council on Foreign Relations think tank, said in a series of tweets that Trump’s stance is “incoherent” and will “tank markets.”
“All new US tariffs will do is trigger new Chinese tariffs,” he said.
Reports @realDonaldTrump doubling down on China tariffs will tank markets for 2 reasons: 1) a trade war looks more likely and 2) it underscores that this is a president who thrives on confrontation and turbulence, traits sure to unnerve markets that prefer comity and stability
— Richard N. Haass (@RichardHaass) April 5, 2018
WH statement on China trade incoherent. How new US tariffs are relevant to past Chinese theft of intellectual property is a mystery. All new US tariffs will do is trigger new Chinese tariffs. US focus should be on protecting IP going forward, reducing asymmetrical chinese tariffs
— Richard N. Haass (@RichardHaass) April 6, 2018
I wonder if any of those advising @realDonaldTrump on trade have pointed out the US hand would be far stronger vis-a-vis China if it had joined TPP and was confronting China not unilaterally but in concert w Japan and 10 others who with US constitute 40% of global economy.
— Richard N. Haass (@RichardHaass) April 6, 2018