World hits back as trade fight heats up
Trump’s imposition of tariffs leads targets to respond in kind, aiming at iconic exports
WASHINGTON — The United States attacked first, imposing tariffs on steel and aluminum from around the globe and threatening to hit tens of billions of dollars in Chinese products.
Now, the world is punching back.
The European Union is set Friday to slap tariffs on $3.4 billion in American products, from whiskey and motorcycles to peanuts and cranberries. India and Turkey have already targeted U.S. products, ranging from rice to autos to sunscreen.
And the highest-stakes fight still looms: In two weeks, the United States is to start taxing $34 billion in Chinese goods. Beijing has vowed to immediately retaliate with its own tariffs on U.S. soybeans and other farm products in a direct shot at President Donald Trump’s supporters in America’s heartland.
The tit-for-tat conflict between the United States and China is poised to escalate from there. The rhetoric is already intensifying.
“We oppose the act of extreme pressure and blackmail by swinging the big stick of trade protectionism,” a spokesman for China’s Commerce Ministry said Thursday. “The U.S. is abusing the tariff methods and starting trade wars all around the world.”
Cecilia Malmstrom, the EU’s trade commissioner, acknowledged that the EU had targeted some iconic American imports for tariffs, like Harley-Davidson motorcycles and bourbon, to “make noise” and put pressure on U.S. leaders.
John Murphy, a senior vice president at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, estimates that $75 billion in U.S. products will be subject to new foreign tariffs by the end of the first week of July.
“We’ve never seen anything like this,” said Mary Lovely, a Syracuse University economist who studies international trade — at least not since countries tried to wall themselves off from foreign competition during the Great Depression.
Those personally in the line of fire are among the most concerned.
“It will be a disaster,” said Nagesh Balusu, manager of the Salt Whisky Bar and Dining Room in London and expects the European Union’s tariffs to add more than $7 to the price of a bottle of Jack Daniels, which is imported from Tennessee. “It’s going to hit customers, that’s for sure. How they’ll take it, we’ll have to wait and see.”
As painful as the brewing trade war could prove, many have seen it coming.
Trump ran for the presidency on a vow to topple seven decades of American policy that had favored ever-freer trade. He charged that a succession of poorly negotiated accords put American manufacturers at an unfair disadvantage and destroyed millions of U.S. factory jobs.
He pledged to impose tariffs on imports from countries that Trump said had exploited the United States. Late last month, Trump proceeded to infuriate U.S. allies by imposing tariffs on imported steel and aluminum.
And he is threatening to impose another tariff on imports of cars, trucks and auto parts.
Trump has also started a trade fight with China over Beijing’s efforts to overtake U.S. technological dominance.
Economists and trade analysts worry that there may be no way out of an all-out trade war between the United States and its most vital trading partners.
“The president has been so belligerent that it becomes almost impossible for democratically elected leaders — or even a non-democratic leader like Xi Jinping — to appear to kowtow and give in,” said Philip Levy, senior fellow at the Chicago Council on Global Affairs and a former White House trade adviser. “The president has made it very hard for other countries to give him what he wants.”