U.S. adds tariffs on $200 billion of Chinese goods

Trump plan targets products such as TVs and air conditioners.

President Trump escalated his trade war with China on Tuesday, identifying an additional $200 billion in Chinese products that he intends to hit with import tariffs.

The move makes good on the president’s threat to respond to China’s retaliation for the initial U.S. tariffs on $34 billion in Chinese goods, which went into effect Friday and would eventually place nearly half of all Chinese imports under tariffs.

Administration officials said the tariff fight is aimed at forcing China to stop stealing American intellectual property and to abandon policies that effectively force U.S. companies to surrender their trade secrets in return for access to the Chinese market.

“These practices are an existential threat to America’s most critical comparative advantage and the future of our economy,” said Robert Lighthizer, the president’s chief trade negotiator.

Trump’s latest action will hit consumer products, such as TVs, clothing, bedsheets and air conditioners, which were spared from the first import levies Friday. But the new tariffs will not be imposed until the end of a twomonth public comment period.

“This is where a painful situation gets more painful,” said Phil Levy, a former White House economist in the George W. Bush administration.

Early reaction to the president’s action was unfavorable. “Tonight’s announcement appears reckless and is not a targeted approach,” said Sen. Orrin Hatch, chairman of the Senate Finance Committee.

Beijing has vowed to respond in kind to any U.S. trade action. But China bought only about $135 billion in U.S. goods last year, meaning it will run out of American products to tax before it matches Trump’s latest move.

Chinese officials are expected to retaliate in other ways, hitting U.S. firms in China with unplanned inspections, delays in approving financial transactions and other administrative headaches.

“The Trump administration is gambling that by wielding such a big club, it will force China to back down,” said Edward Alden, a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations. “That is almost certainly a serious miscalculation. China is far more likely just to find other ways to hit back in kind.”

The president has repeatedly described his resort to tariffs, which are paid by American importers, as a lever to extract negotiating concessions from U.S. trading partners.

A few rounds of talks with Chinese leaders earlier this year made little progress, however, and no plans for additional meetings have been made public.

U.S. officials say they remain willing to bargain. But a senior administration official who briefed reporters Tuesday on the condition that he not be identified added: “We do intend to keep the pressure on them.”

The Trump administration said it was cracking down on China’s practices involving intellectual property and technology that cost U.S. companies an estimated $50 billion annually.

Trump authorized tariffs on an initial $50 billion worth of goods, including the $34 billion that took effect Friday, to offset those losses.

China’s retaliation to those measures was “without any international legal basis or justification,” Lighthizer said Tuesday.