Very thankful for President Xi of China’s kind words on tariffs and automobile barriers…also, his enlightenment on intellectual property and technology transfers. We will make great progress together!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 10, 2018
One might have thought this was a sign cooler heads would prevail, but China’s Commerce Ministry says Beijing Will Fight back if U.S. Escalates Trade Spat.
China will not hesitate to fight back if the United States escalates its trade spat with Beijing, the commerce ministry said on Thursday, asserting that Chinese President Xi Jinping’s pledge to cut import tariffs is not a concession to Washington.
It would be misleading to say Xi’s pledge this week was a concession to the United States, commerce ministry spokesman Gao Feng said at a regular press briefing in Beijing.
Gao said it is not reasonable to require tariffs to be completely equal for both sides, and that there is no demand for tariff equalization in bilateral relationships under World Trade Organization rules.
China and the U.S. have not held any negotiations on their bilateral trade frictions, Gao said, adding that it is not a matter of whether Beijing is willing to negotiate with Washington.
It’s about the United States not showing sincerity, he said.
Trump may have been happy with small concessions that let him brag, at least for a while. In practice, nothing has been said or done, and Chinese promises are hollow.
Mike “Mish” Shedlock
China Says US is Not Sincere and “Import Tariff Cuts Not a Concession to Trump”
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7 comments on China Says US is Not Sincere and “Import Tariff Cuts Not a Concession to Trump”
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Thanks for Tuning In!
Mish
Tengen wrote: “… who cares if China wants to hurt their own consumers?”
If you are suggesting that Libertarians are racists who don’t care about people of color in Asia, then you should think again. Libertarians are human beings, capable of human emotion, and of course capable of caring about their fellow human beings.
As an example, American blogger Mish has had cogent observations & concerns about many non-US issues — Brexit, Catalonia, Germany … to name but a few.
When China’s tariffs are 10 times those of Western countries, clearly China cutting its tariffs would be a strong positive move towards the Nirvanah of genuine Free Trade. It is odd for Libertarians not to make at least passing comment on the unreasonably high level of Chinese tariffs.
The really obvious answer to your China tariff question is this: who cares if China wants to hurt their own consumers? For an American blogger, the greater issue would be tariffs harming American consumers.
Also, please don’t whine about people “hating” Trump. American partisan politics are a joke, the whole red/blue paradigm was exposed as a scam long ago. If Trump is so sensitive to criticism, perhaps he could make up his mind about issues rather than waffling about seemingly everything. Dopey John Kerry was a flip flopping amateur compared to L’Orange.
Trump has three things on his plate, the trade war with China, the shooting war with Syria, and the Stormy Daniels thing. China has an incredible amount of leverage. They don’t need to bluster. He might not lose, but he isn’t winning. If he shoots blanks at Syria that’s a real loser and what does the religious right think about his porn star debacle? The Speaker retires, he is third in succession to the WH and no real substance in Pence. They call it a crisis of leadership, perhaps only days away. Doesn’t matter who is wrong or right here. Tomorrow is friday the 13th, and the foreign investors must be getting nervous. Lets see if they vote with their feet.
Mish – we all get that you hate President Trump. Great! Now put that aside and think like a Libertarian. The Bad Actor in this story is China — China is the one that has been running a trade war against the US for decades. China is the one which has high tariff barriers, and even higher non-tariff barriers. Per Free Trade dogma, that means Chinese rulers are hurting their own consumers. Why do you not spend even a little time criticizing China’s high tariffs?
We don’t have the factories or the trained workers to do any such thing, after 2 generations. Doing without Chinese products will mean doing without… unthinkable to the “I want it now” credit junkies that in habit this country.
Fed will simply bury them in freshly printed fiat lol,Beijing must know any trade war not only will they lose (badly)thousands of factories millions of chinese jobs on the line.America has no such issue,few if any factories,less than half the pop. work (at all),majority of americans simply get a “check” from DC 1st of every month.
There’s a new book, “What’s Wrong with China” that goes to the cultural and philosophical differences between the Chinese and the West, and I was expecting this because the Chinese always have to “save face”. They prefer indirect and informalism to directness and don’t see nibbling around the edges or things like stealing IP as cheating of theft. They simply have a different moral philosophy. So their words imply different things than if said by someone from the wesst