Trump, China trade war: 25% tariff on $200 billion of Chinese import

iStock;
David Becker/Getty Images; Samantha Lee/Business
Insider

• President Donald Trump requested the US Trade
  Representative explore the option to hit $200 billion worth of
  Chinese imports to the US with a 25% tariff on
  Wednesday.
• Trump originally proposed only a 10% tariff on the
  goods.
• The move would be a major escalation of the next
  planned round of tariffs.
• The tariffs could go into effect within the next few
  months.

President Donald Trump could be about to double
down on the next phase of the trade
war with China

Senior administration officials told reporters on Wednesday that
Trump asked the US Trade Representative to explore the
possibility of imposing a 25% tariff on $200 billion worth of
Chinese imports to the US. The original proposal was to hit the
same amount of goods with a 10% tariff.

The tariffs could not go into effect until September, said the
officials, and no final decision had been made on whether impose
the tariffs. The public has until September 5 to comment on the
proposal.

The tariff increase would represent another major escalation of
the trade war between the US and China, which has seen roughly
$74 billion worth of trade between the two countries get hit with
tariffs.

The proposed increase drew criticism from industry groups like
the National Retail Federation (NRF), which said that the move
would ultimately hurt US consumers.

“Increasing the size of the tariffs is merely increasing
the harm that will be done. And it’s even more than that – it’s
two-and-a-half times the amount originally
proposed,” Matthew Shay, NRF CEO, said in a statement.
“Tariffs are an unacceptable gamble with the U.S. economy and the
stakes continue to rise with no end in sight.”

This
next wave of tariffs was originally announced in July, after
China hit the US with countermeasures in response to Trump’s
initial wave of tariffs. If tariffs on another $200 billion worth
of goods proceeds, about half of all Chinese goods coming into
the US would be subject to trade restrictions.

The Trump administration
released a preliminary list of goods that could be subject to
this wave of tariffs. The products range from agricultural
products like pork and apples to consumer goods like wool hats
and vacuum cleaners.

The Chinese government has warned that the country will retaliate
with trade restrictions of equal measure if Trump follows through
on the threat.

Read more:

Trump’s trade war is getting serious — here’s why it started,
what it means for the US economy, and how it could hit
you

The fight over trade kicked off in March when Trump threatened to
hit $50 billion worth of Chinese imports with a 25% tariff.
Attempts at avoiding the tariffs fell apart in May and the
countries officially imposed tariffs in early July.

Trump’s trade fights, including the battle with China, are

starting to seep into the US economy based on recent data.
Concerns about the trade war are popping up in various business
and
consumer confidence surveys,
prices for goods hit by various tariffs are on the rise, and
businesses are
starting to feel the squeeze from the increased prices.

Here’s a timeline of the US-China trade war so far: