US Firms to Trump: Don’t Raise Tariffs on More Chinese Goods

Trump’s proposed tariffs of 10 to 25 percent on $200 billion in Chinese goods could kick in as early as next month.

China’s President Xi Jinping and US President Donald Trump.

(Photo Courtesy: AP)

Fishermen off the Alaskan coast. A Florida maker of boat trailers. A building materials distributor in Tennessee.

These and hundreds of other American businesses are delivering the same plea to President Donald Trump as he considers imposing tariffs on nearly 40 percent of imported Chinese goods:

Don't do it.

The Trump administration will hold six days of hearings starting Monday, 21 August, in Washington on the next barrage in an escalating trade war between the world's two largest economies: Trump's proposed tariffs of 10 percent to 25 percent on $200 billion in Chinese goods that could kick in as early as next month.

Once in effect, the tariffs would immediately inflate the prices that American companies would have to pay for Chinese components they need to build their products. Those companies would have to decide whether to pass those costs on to their customers or absorb the higher prices themselves.

US to Impose Next Round of Tariffs on China

The first shots have already been fired: In July, Trump slapped 25 percent tariffs on $34 billion in Chinese imports. Taxes on an additional $16 billion are set to kick in this week. China is counterpunching with tariffs of its own.

But the $200 billion in additional Chinese goods that the Trump administration is considering taxing would mark a significant escalation in its trade fight with Beijing.

Washington and Beijing are clashing over US allegations that China uses predatory tactics to try to overtake American technological dominance. Those tactics, the administration argues, include cyber-theft and pressure for US companies to hand over trade secrets in return for access to the Chinese market.

So far, the US tariffs have targeted imported Chinese industrial products — not the electronics, toys and food that ordinary Americans might buy at a mall or order online. But adding $200 billion to the target list would expose to hefty taxes many more of the $506 billion in goods that China shipped to the United States last year, including many consumer products. The list includes 6,031 Chinese imports — an eclectic compilation that ranges from buttons to burglar alarms to motorboats.

Small-Scale Traders Get Caught Up In US-China Trade Dispute

JO-ANN Stores, which sells fabric and crafting supplies, says it imports about 500 items on the tariff list, including fleece, yarn and cotton fabric. Ed Weinstein, JO-ANN's vice president of tax and public affairs, said he doesn't understand how supplies for knitters and crafters became caught up in a trade dispute over high-tech policy.

Our products are very simple. I would never have expected to see fabric and craft components on the tariff list.

Ed Weinstein, JO-ANN’s vice president of tax and public affairs told <i>The Associated Press</i>

In their filings to the Trump administration, companies that import from China complain that the tariffs will force them to raise prices, pay higher costs, try to find alternative suppliers or lose business to foreign rivals that don't have to pay a penalty on components and machinery they import from China.

If you look at the filings, a lot of them are mom-and-pop businesses saying, 'Please don't do this to us,' " said Bryan Riley, director of the Free Trade Initiative at the conservative National Taxpayers Union.

(Published in an arrangement with AP.)