Tag Archives: tariffs

USA Today reports: Officials in China, Mexico and Canada criticized Tuesday a pledge made by President-elect Donald Trump on social media to impose new tariffs on all three of the United States’ largest trading partners on the first day of his presidency. Trump said the move, which appears to violate the terms of a free-trade deal Trump signed into law …

Semafor reports: Donald Trump may be interested in using steep new tariffs to pay for tax cuts next year, an idea that would force Congress to vote on his aggressive trade agenda. Republican lawmakers, however, are far from sold. Some are already panning the prospect. “I don’t like tariffs, number one. I think the consumer pays them. So they’re regressive. …

Yahoo Finance reports: Trump’s proposed tariffs have already begun to upend businesses in several industries and many are taking action to safeguard their profits. The tariffs, which include a 10-20% tax on all imports and a potential 60-100% on goods from China, are causing significant concern – and the costs are likely coming right to consumers’ wallets. Philip Daniele, the …

CNBC reports: Walmart’s CFO, John David Rainey, said the retailer could have to raise prices on some items if President-elect Donald Trump’s proposed tariffs take effect. “We never want to raise prices,” he said in an interview with CNBC on Tuesday. “Our model is everyday low prices. But there probably will be cases where prices will go up for consumers.” …

Bloomberg News reports: Hedge-fund titan Ken Griffin said he’s anxious about Donald Trump’s potential tariff policies, but that the US economy is going back to “the business of business” now that he’s returning to the White House. Speaking at the Oxford Union in the UK on Monday, the Citadel founder called tariffs — a central tenet of Trump’s economic agenda …

Politico Europe reports: Former Trump administration officials are warning the European Union to expect President-elect Donald Trump to take early action to increase tariffs — and to potentially bypass the Brussels bureaucracy in favor of dealing with individual European capitals on trade concerns. Trump is threatening to impose up to a 20 percent across-the-border tariff on all $3 trillion worth …

Bloomberg News reports: The U.S. Commerce Department released a report this week on proposed auto tariffs that the Trump administration refused to make public. The agency, under former President Donald Trump, kept the 2019 document private and was sued for holding back the information. The DOJ in January 2020 said the White House could use executive privilege to decline its …

Reuters reports: About 3,500 U.S. companies, including Tesla Inc, Ford Motor Co, Target Corp, Walgreen Co and Home Depot have sued the Trump administration in the last two weeks over the imposition of tariffs on more than $300 billion in Chinese-made goods. The suits, filed in the U.S. Court of International Trade, named U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer and the …

Bloomberg News reports: The World Trade Organization undercut the main justification for President Donald Trump’s trade war against China, saying that American tariffs on Chinese goods violate international rules. Washington has imposed levies on $400 billion in Chinese exports. The panel said in its report “that the United States had not met its burden of demonstrating that the measures are …

The Guardian reports: Canada has announced that it will retaliate dollar for dollar – to the tune of C$3.6bn – after the US announced a 10% tariff on Canadian aluminum. Donald Trump announced the new aluminum tariffs on Thursday at a campaign stop at a Whirlpool appliance plant in Ohio, accusing Canada of taking advantage of its trade relationship with …

The Washington Post reports: President Trump promised in an all-caps tweet Friday to provide additional bailout funding to American farmers if necessary, as questions arise over whether China’s purchases of agricultural products will fall short of what it pledged in the recently signed trade deal. The bailout was created by the Trump administration as a way to try to calm …

Bloomberg reports: The White House acknowledged what many economists considered obvious through much of last year: President Donald Trump’s trade stance depressed economic growth and business investment. “Uncertainty generated by trade negotiations dampened investment,” Trump chief economist Tomas Philipson told reporters in a briefing on the annual Economic Report of the President released on Thursday. The admission contrasted with Trump’s …

Axios reports: Chief financial officers are bracing for an economic slowdown this year, according to Deloitte’s quarterly survey of nearly 150 executives at top North American companies. Multiple surveys showed plunging optimism among top executives last year, thanks largely to trade war uncertainty. Deloitte’s survey is a signal that skittishness continues to curb companies’ hiring and spending plans this year, …

CNBC reports: President Donald Trump plans to ink the “phase one” trade deal with China at the White House on Jan. 15.  The president said “high level representatives of China” will attend the signing. Trump added that he will travel to Beijing “at a later date” to start talks toward a second piece of the trade pact. The White House …

MarketWatch reports: President Donald Trump’s strategy to use import tariffs to protect and boost U.S. manufacturers backfired and led to job losses and higher prices, according to a Federal Reserve study released this week. “We find that the 2018 tariffs are associated with relative reductions in manufacturing employment and relative increases in producer prices,” concluded Fed economists Aaron Flaaen and …

The Wall Street Journal reports: The U.S. and China have reached a preliminary agreement in their long-running trade war, President Trump and China’s Vice Minister of Commerce Wang Shouwen said in separate statements Friday. Mr. Trump tweeted that the two sides had agreed “to a very large Phase One Deal with China,” adding that the 25% tariffs on Chinese imports …

The Washington Post reports: President Trump revved up his global trade war on two fronts Monday, announcing tariffs on industrial metals from Brazil and Argentina while eyeing tariffs of up to 100 percent on a number of French imports. The administration said the moves were necessary because U.S. trading partners were acting unfairly to disadvantage both the country’s traditional economic …

Axios reports: President Trump tweeted Monday that he will restore steel and aluminum tariffs against Brazil and Argentina due to their currency devaluations. Trump’s tweets show that he is not afraid to open a potential new front in his ongoing global trade war even as the 2020 presidential election approaches — and also touched on his antagonism with the Federal …

Bloomberg reports: Dollar Tree Inc. shares fell the most intraday since 2012 after the budget retailer trimmed its outlook on 2019 profit, saying tariffs on Chinese imports are driving up costs. Dollar Tree’s decline has erased much of its year-to-date gain. Dollar Tree’s downward revision shows the risk that the ongoing U.S.-China trade war poses for retailers — especially value-based …

Reuters reports: President Donald Trump on Sunday welcomed a “cash” payout to American farmers before the Thanksgiving Day holiday that he attributed to China tariffs, but that money actually is part of a U.S. government aid package. The U.S. Department of Agriculture said on Friday it will begin making a second round of 2019 trade aid payments to U.S. farmers …