Trade rift could squeeze growth, hurt consumers

WASHINGTON » Higher prices. Slower growth. Farmers losing access to their biggest foreign market.

Even President Donald Trump is warning that Americans might have to accept “a little pain” before they enjoy the fruits of his escalating trade fight with China.

On the pain part, if not necessarily on the “little” part, most economists agree with the president: The tariffs the United States and China are preparing to slap on each other’s goods would take an economic toll.

For now, optimists are clinging to tentative signals from the Trump administration that it may be prepared to negotiate with Beijing and avert a trade war.

But Wall Street is getting increasingly nervous. The Dow Jones industrial average lost 572 points Friday after being down as much as 767.

“There are no winners in trade wars,” said Nathan Sheets, chief economist at PGIM Fixed Income. “There are only losers.”

On Thursday, Trump ordered the U.S. trade representative to consider imposing tariffs on up to $100 billion worth of Chinese products. Those duties would come on top of the $50 billion in products the U.S. has already targeted in a dispute over Beijing’s sharp-elbowed drive to supplant America’s technological supremacy.

China has proposed tariffs of $50 billion on U.S. products that will squeeze apple growers in Washington, soybean farmers in Indiana and winemakers in California. And Beijing warned Friday that it will “counterattack with great strength” if the United States ups the ante.

Of course, it may not come to that.

“We’re absolutely willing to

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS A truck transports a shipping container at the cargo terminal port in Qingdao in east China’s Shandong province on Friday.