Trump jabbed first, and now world hits back in trade fight
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 targetedU.S. products, rang- ing 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. Beijinghas vowedto 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 — the world’s two largest economies — 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 iffs, like Harley-Davidson imports for tarmotorcycles 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. productswill be subject to newforeign tariffs by the end of thefirst 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 during foreign the Great competition Depression. Those personally in the line of fire are among the most concerned. “It will be a disaster,” said Nagesh Balusu, manager of the SaltWhisky 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 among nations. He charged that a succession of poorly negotiated accords put American manufacturers at an unfair disadvantage and destroyed millions ofU.S. factory jobs.
He pledged to impose tariffs on imports from countries that Trump said had exploited the United States.