{"id":62448,"date":"2018-04-07T04:49:07","date_gmt":"2018-04-07T04:49:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.biphoo.com\/bipnews\/?p=62448"},"modified":"2018-04-07T04:52:45","modified_gmt":"2018-04-07T04:52:45","slug":"trump-aims-new-threat-china-mnuchin-warns-trade-war","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.biphoo.com\/bipnews\/news\/trump-aims-new-threat-china-mnuchin-warns-trade-war.html","title":{"rendered":"Trump Aims New Threat at China as Mnuchin Warns of Trade War"},"content":{"rendered":"

Trump Aims New Threat at China as Mnuchin Warns of Trade War<\/span><\/strong><\/h2>\n

President Trump defended his pugnacious approach to trade policy on Friday and the Treasury secretary warned there could be a trade war with China, as Mr. Trump doubled down on a White House plan to punish Beijing by threatening to levy tariffs on an additional $100 billion in imports.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThere is the potential of a trade war,\u201d Steven Mnuchin said in an interview with CNBC. \u201cThere is a level of risk that we could get into a trade war.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Mr. Mnuchin said he was hopeful that negotiations with his Chinese counterparts could avert a damaging escalation of retaliatory, tit-for-tat tariffs but declined to elaborate on the status of talks and whether he thought an agreement could be reached.<\/span><\/p>\n

Financial markets continued to drop on Friday as the potential for a damaging trade dispute \u2014 which had begun to fade on Wednesday and early Thursday as other top White House advisers tried to soothe markets \u2014 reared its head amid comments by Mr. Trump, Mr. Mnuchin and Robert Lighthizer, the United States trade representative, suggesting the United States would not back down.<\/span><\/p>\n

In a radio interview that aired on Friday, Mr. Trump acknowledged that his approach to China could cause \u201ca little pain\u201d to financial markets but said that it would be worth it in the long run.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cNow we could \u2014 the easiest thing for me to do would be just to close my eyes and forget it,\u201d Mr. Trump said on WABC Radio\u2019s \u201cBernie & Sid in the Morning\u201d show.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIf I did that, I\u2019m not doing my job. So, I\u2019m not saying there won\u2019t be a little pain, but the market\u2019s gone up 40 percent, 42 percent \u2014 so we might lose a little bit of it \u2014 but we\u2019re going to have a much stronger country when we\u2019re finished. And that\u2019s what I\u2019m all about. We have to do things that other people wouldn\u2019t do.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Mr. Mnuchin said on Friday that a correction was normal after such a long stretch of rising stock prices. He insisted that Mr. Trump\u2019s trade policy would be good for economic growth and that he was not concerned about daily declines in stocks.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI think these are all long term positive things that the president is willing to defend our interests,\u201d Mr. Mnuchin said.<\/span><\/p>\n

He added that he continued to be optimistic that a mutually beneficial agreement could be worked out.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI think this could be good for us and good for them,\u201d he said.<\/span><\/p>\n

Mr. Trump, in a tweet on Friday, criticized both China and the World Trade Organization, saying that the Chinese \u201cget tremendous perks and advantages, especially over the U.S. Does anybody think this is fair. We were badly represented. The WTO is unfair to U.S.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

China, which is a great economic power, is considered a Developing Nation within the World Trade Organization. They therefore get tremendous perks and advantages, especially over the U.S. Does anybody think this is fair. We were badly represented. The WTO is unfair to U.S.<\/span><\/p>\n

That followed another early morning tweet, in which Mr. Trump boasted that the new metals tariffs he has put into effect on China and other nations had not hurt American consumers as his critics predicted.<\/span><\/p>\n

Despite the Aluminum Tariffs, Aluminum prices are DOWN 4%. People are surprised, I\u2019m not! Lots of money coming into U.S. coffers and Jobs, Jobs, Jobs!<\/span><\/p>\n

The price of aluminum per pound has been falling since February, a decline that started before the tariffs were imposed. Mr. Trump\u2019s decision to exempt Canada, which supplied more than half of America\u2019s aluminum imports in 2016, has also helped to soften the blow from tariffs, companies say.<\/span><\/p>\n

The president\u2019s criticism of the World Trade Organization is not new \u2014 many of his top advisers have complained that its process for reviewing and resolving trade disputes has put the United States and Western countries at a disadvantage.<\/span><\/p>\n

But the United States has said it will take its complaint about Chinese trade practices, including the tactics it uses to gain access to American intellectual property, to the global body as part of the sweeping trade action the White House announced last month. That White House investigation found that China cheats the United States out of $50 billion annually through pressure and other coercive measures aimed at gaining access to American technology.<\/span><\/p>\n

On Friday morning, the White House issued an additional statement defending the president\u2019s actions.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cYear after year, China continues to distort global markets and harm U.S. businesses and consumers with unfair trade practices,\u201d the press office said.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThe president is for free trade, but it must also be fair trade. Addressing unfair trade practices and ensuring that global trade is free, fair, and reciprocal will have a significant positive long-term impact on the U.S. economy,\u201d the statement said.<\/span><\/p>\n

But the approach has come under swift and stinging criticism from lawmakers of both parties, as well as industries whose businesses depend on access to China\u2019s markets.<\/span><\/p>\n

Senator Heidi Heitkamp, a Democrat from North Dakota, called Mr. Trump\u2019s actions \u201creckless,\u201d saying in a tweet that 60% of her state\u2019s exports to China are agricultural products. \u201cChina\u2019s unfair trade policies need to be reined in but this isn\u2019t the way to do it.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Escalating the potential of a trade war w\/ China is reckless and it gambles the livelihoods of US farmers & ranchers across rural America. 60% of ND\u2019s exports to China are agricultural products. China\u2019s unfair trade policies need to be reined in but this isn\u2019t the way to do it.<\/span><\/p>\n

In his statement on Thursday, Mr. Trump said he had instructed the agriculture secretary to implement a plan to protect farmers and agricultural interests. It is unclear what that plan could entail, but Chad Bown, a senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics, said that if the president chose to subsidize farmers, he could spark a wider conflict with countries beyond China, which would object to unfair competition from American agriculture.<\/span><\/p>\n

White House trade advisers have described the tariff threats as a long overdue action against a pernicious cheater in global trade, saying China has long engaged in pressure, coercion and outright theft to gain access to valuable intellectual property. Yet the escalating threat of a trade war between the world\u2019s two largest economies has unnerved many American businesses that depend on China as a source for goods or as a market for their own products.<\/span><\/p>\n

Global markets were cautiously lower on Friday, following a volatile week in which markets plunged on the president\u2019s initial trade threats, then recovered as his advisers said the trade move was mostly a negotiating tool and might not even go into effect.<\/span><\/p>\n

China was celebrating a national holiday Friday and did not immediately announce any concrete action against the president\u2019s threat of an additional $100 billion in tariffs. A spokesman said the Chinese Ministry of Commerce had \u201ctaken note\u201d of the White House\u2019s statement, adding that \u201cthe Chinese position has been made very clear. We do not want to fight, but we are not afraid to fight a trade war.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

If the United States follows through with its threats, the Chinese \u201cwill follow suit to the end and will not hesitate to pay any price,\u201d he said, arguing that the United States initiated the conflict.<\/span><\/p>\n

In the meantime, the trade measures ignited a swift response from manufacturers, retailers and politicians from states whose economies depend on agriculture. Although China exports far more to the United States than it imports, China is still the United States\u2019 third largest export market after Canada and Mexico, a vital destination for American-made goods like Boeing airplanes, luxury automobiles and soybeans.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cHopefully, the president is just blowing off steam again, but if he\u2019s even half-serious, this is nuts,\u201d Senator Ben Sasse, Republican of Nebraska, said on Thursday. \u201cLet\u2019s absolutely take on Chinese bad behavior, but with a plan that punishes them instead of us. This is the dumbest possible way to do this.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

The National Retail Federation criticized the new round of tariffs as a dangerous game of chicken ending with the United States on the losing end of a trading relationship that has benefited American companies and consumers.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThis is what a trade war looks like, and what we have warned against from the start. We are on a dangerous downward spiral, and American families will be on the losing end,\u201d Matthew R. Shay, the president and chief executive of the retail group, said in a statement. \u201cWe urge the administration to change course and stop playing a game of chicken with the nation\u2019s economy.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Source:-https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2018\/04\/06\/us\/politics\/trump-trade-policies.html<\/span><\/p>\n

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