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The administration under US President Donald Trump is pressing China to cut its trade surplus with the United States by 100 billion US dollars – not 1 billion, as Trump previously misstated on Twitter, a White House spokeswoman said on Wednesday, a day after reports of threats of additional tariffs on Chinese-made goods.
The White House spokeswoman declined to provide details about how the administration would like China to accomplish the surplus-cutting goal — whether increased purchases of US products such as soybeans or aircraft would suffice, or whether it wants China to make major changes to its industrial policies, cut subsidies to state-owned enterprises or further reduce steel and aluminum capacity.
The United States had a record 375 billion US dollars trade deficit with China in 2017, which made up two-thirds of a global 566 billion dollar US trade gap last year, according to US Census Bureau data.
China reported its 2017 US trade surplus as 276 billion US dollars, also about two-thirds of its reported global surplus of 422.5 billion dollars.
Newly appointed Top Economic Adviser to Trump Larry Kudlow.
Larry Kudlow, the incoming director of the White House national economic council, said on Wednesday that China has earned a tough response from the United States on trade, despite to have stated his views against blanket tariffs.
Three people with direct knowledge of the administration’s thinking said the around 60 billion US dollars of tariffs, associated with a “Section 301” of the Trade Act of 1974, intellectual property investigation, could come “in the very near future.”
While the tariffs would be chiefly targeted at information technology, consumer electronics and telecoms, they could be much broader and the list could eventually run to 100 products, this person said.
The White House declined to comment on the size or timing of any move.
In a Thursday editorial, widely-read Chinese state-run newspaper the Global Times said the United States was trying to play the victim.
“If the US wants to reduce its trade deficit, it has to make Americans more hard-working and conduct reforms in accordance with international market demand, instead of asking the rest of the world to change,” it wrote.
Fears persist that additional tariffs of nearly 60 billion US dollars on products such as textiles will make consumers shoulder the cost.
“Once a trade war starts, capable countries won’t bow to the US. China has tried hard to avoid a trade war, but if one breaks out, appeasement is not an option.”
Lobbyists in Washington expressed concern that Trump’s ambitious tariff plan would also include other labor-intensive consumer goods sectors such as apparel, footwear and toys.
Higher tariffs on these products would “hurt American families,” said Hun Quach, a trade lobbyist for the Retail Industry Leaders Association.
“We’re not talking about fancy cashmere sweaters, we’re talking about cotton T-Shirts and jeans and shoes that kids wear for back-to-school,” she added. “Alarm bells are ringing.”
(CGTN&REUTERS)
