The Trump administration lays out its latest tariff targets.

Electronics among items on Trump’s proposed tariff list

The Trump administration Tuesday unveiled its list of roughly $50 billion in Chinese electronics, aerospace and machinery products it plans to hit with steep tariffs, the latest move in a deepening U.S.-China trade conflict.

The 25 percent import taxes are designed to penalize China for discriminatory policies that the United States says puts its companies at a disadvantage in the Chinese market. President Donald Trump has complained that the Chinese government forces U.S. companies to surrender their proprietary technology in return for access to the Chinese market and engages in cyber theft to acquire other American trade secrets.

Trump’s latest protectionist move threatens to upend global supply chains for corporations such as Apple and Dell, raise prices for American consumers who have grown accustomed to inexpensive products and aggravate tensions between the world’s two largest economies.

“The pain will be very visible and the potential gains will be very abstract. The administration hasn’t prepared the U.S. for the downsides of a trade war,” said Brad Setser, a former White House economist in the Obama administration.

With just seven months before congressional elections, that could pose a political challenge for the president, who promised his supporters he would overhaul U.S. trade policy to benefit American workers.

Voters disapproved of Trump’s handling of trade policy by 54 percent to 34 percent in the latest Quinnipiac University poll, with only Republicans and white voters without a college education backing his tariff offensive.

In acting, the president swept aside opposition from business groups, which agree that China’s mercantilist policies must be confronted, but fear the consequences of a tit-for-tat trade conflict.