The United States could impose tariffs on roughly half of all Chinese goods entering the country by the end of the week.
CNN reports that,
President Donald Trump’s proposed tariffs on $200 billion of Chinese goods could go into effect as soon as Friday when a public comment period on the taxes concludes. It’s unclear whether the new tariffs will be set at 10% or 25%.
It could be the most painful round of tariffs the United States has imposed on Chinese products this year. The Trump administration slapped 25% tariffs on $34 billion of Chinese imports in July and another $16 billion last week. China was also on the receiving end of the aluminum and steel tariffs that the United States imposed on imports from much of the world.
Beijing has retaliated at each step of the way. It has imposed 25% tariffs on $50 billion of American goods to date. It’s also threatened to respond to the newest round with tariffs on another $60 billion of US goods. It’s hard for China to match the United States’ tariff on $200 billion of goods because the United States exports far less to China.
President Trump initially asked the Office of the United States Trade Representative to investigate the impact of a 10% tariff, and then upped the proposal to 25% in early August.
