China fired the latest salvo Friday in the ongoing trade war with the U.S., announcing retaliatory tariffs on $75 billion worth of U.S. imports, sending stocks sinking in pre-market trading.
China said a 5% tariff will be put on U.S. soybeans and crude-oil imports on Sept. 1, and a 25% duty is going on American cars starting Dec. 15.
President Donald Trump tweeted about the Federal Reserve shortly after the announcement, likely in reference to the announcement and the U.S.-China trade war.
Now the Fed can show their stuff!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 23, 2019
Much like Trump’s last round of tariffs, the levies on American goods will go into effect on Sept. 1, with another round set for Dec. 15, according to an announcement from China’s Ministry of Commerce.
Trump announced tariffs on $300 billion worth of Chinese imports for Sept. 1, but later backtracked on a number of consumer goods popular at Christmas time, acknowledging consumer spending would be hurt along with the U.S. economy due to higher-priced goods, so some tariffs were suspended until mid-December.
The announcement also caused China to halt the purchase of agricultural goods and allowed its currency to weaken to the politically sensitive 7-to-$1 ratio, sparking fears of a currency war and leading the U.S. to label China a currency manipulator for the first time since Bill Clinton was president.
China said a 5% tariff will be put on U.S. soybeans and crude-oil imports on Sept. 1, and a 25% duty is going on American cars starting Dec. 15.
The latest slap in the tariffs fight between the world’s two largest economies sent futures sinking along with Treasury yields and oil prices.
Negotiators have spoken by phone and another call to discuss trade is scheduled for the next few days to see if the two sides can come to some sort of an agreement. A Chinese delegation is still planning to travel to the U.S. in September for face-to-face meetings, so there is still hope a deal can be reached.
Trump economic adviser Larry Kudlow told Fox Business Network “hopefully we are still planning on having the Chinese team come here to Washington D.C. to continue the negotiations.”
“I don’t want to predict, but we will see,” Kudlow said.
By 9 a.m. EDT, the S&P 500 and the Dow Jones Industrial Average were down 0.5%, and the Nasdaq was down 0.8% in what looks to be another rocky day for markets.