Chinese Vow 'Countermeasures' If US Makes Good on Threat to Impose List 4 Tariffs
China vowed Friday to retaliate if the Trump administration carries out its threat to impose the 10 percent List 4 Section 301 tariffs on $300 billion in Chinese imports not previously dutied (see 1908010059). If the U.S. “imposes tariff measures and implements them” as threatened Sept. 1, “China will have to take necessary countermeasures to resolutely defend the core interests of the country and the fundamental interests of the people,” said a Commerce Ministry spokesperson. “All the consequences will be borne by the US.”
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The administration’s threat is “a serious violation of the consensus between the heads of state of the two countries in Osaka and deviates from the correct track and is not conducive to solving the problem,” said the spokesperson of Presidents Donald Trump and Xi Jinping agreeing at the G20 summit to restart negotiations toward a comprehensive trade deal. “The Chinese side is strongly dissatisfied and resolutely opposed.”
The U.S. “escalation of trade frictions and tariffs” is “inconsistent with the interests” of the Chinese, American and global populations and “will have a declining impact on the world economy,” said the spokesperson: “The Chinese side always believes that there is no winner in the trade war, and does not want to fight or fear to fight, but has to fight if necessary.”
A Chinese Foreign Affairs Ministry spokesperson sharpened the confrontational rhetoric Friday when she said China won’t bend to “maximum pressure, threat or blackmail” from the U.S. administration. If the U.S. wants to talk trade, “our door is wide open,” she said. “But if it insists on a trade war, we will fight to the end with firm resolve. Now the ball is in the U.S. court. It needs to demonstrate good faith. The world is watching.” The White House and the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative didn’t comment Friday.
USTR Robert Lighthizer will publish a “finalized tariff list” in the Federal Register “in the coming days,” emailed a spokesperson Thursday. “The finalized list will reflect revisions to the proposed list based on comments and testimony during the public comment period and hearings held in June." The comment appeared to contradict the messaging in Trump's Thursday tweets suggesting all goods earmarked for List 4 tariffs in the original mid-May proposal would be dutied.
Lighthizer has “tried to mitigate potential negative effects” of the List 4 tariffs, “including by undertaking a fair and transparent process through which we receive comments from as many stakeholders as we can,” he told Senate Finance Committee Ranking Member Ron Wyden, D-Ore., in written answers to questions posed after Lighthizer’s June 18 appearance before the committee (see 1906180029). “I will consider all these comments” before taking action on List 4, he said. The committee released the answers before Trump tweeted Thursday he would impose List 4 Sept. 1.
China pays the tariffs, not U.S. importers or consumers, Trump falsely told reporters Thursday. “We’ve taxed China on 300 billion dollars’ worth of goods and products being sold into our country,” he said of List 4. “China eats it because they have to pay it.” The U.S. is “taking in many billions of dollars” in tariffs, he said. “It hasn’t cost our consumer anything; it costs China.” Tariffs are taxes that U.S. consumers and businesses pay, not China, argued CTA, the National Retail Federation and many other groups Thursday, as they have for months.
Though face-to-face talks with the Chinese are to resume in early September, “until such time as there’s a deal, we’ll be taxing them,” said Trump. The Sept. 1 effective date is not negotiable, he said. “It takes a long time for the ships to come over,” so he’s giving it “a four-week period of time before the tariffs go on,” he said. “We’re now taking in tariffs on 10 percent on over $300 billion, and 25 percent on $250 billion,” he said of Lists 1 through 4. “It’s been proven that our people are not paying for those tariffs.”
The List 4 tariffs could always be hiked in “stages,” as the administration did with List 3, said Trump. “We’re starting at 10 percent, and it can be lifted up to well beyond 25 percent,” he said. “But we’re not looking to do that necessarily.”