Donald Trump postpones the trade war between the United States and China. The US president released on Tuesday, August 13 the pressure against Beijing by delaying the imposition of punitive tariffs on a series of consumer goods, a gesture also addressed to the US consumer before end-of-year purchases.
This initiative hailed with enthusiasm by markets and importers appears indeed as a gift to American consumers who feared price increases around the holidays because of tariffs. "We are doing this for Christmas just in case it will have an impact on the American consumer," acknowledged Donald Trump, adding, "We have postponed them (the tariffs) so they do not have any influence on the holidays. the end of the year."
This is the first time the President has made it clear that the US economy - the consumer of which is the main pillar - could suffer from the trade war it unleashed against China a little over a year ago. . He was quick to point out that "for now" the taxes he imposed on Chinese imports had had "no effect". On the contrary, a majority of economists and the IMF insist on the disastrous effect of the trade war between the first two economic powers of the world on global growth.
Negotiations between Americans and Chinese
In an attempt to break the deadlock, Americans and Chinese have returned to their language. Negotiators had a telephone interview on Tuesday called by the US president "very productive". The US government therefore announced to postpone to December 15 the introduction of additional tariffs of 10% on Chinese electronic products that was scheduled for September 1.
This decision, which delays by two and a half months the taxation of a large part of the $ 300 billion of Chinese imports affected by these tariffs - out of a total of some 550 billion Chinese goods imported each year to the United States - was celebrated by the markets. Wall Street, which started in the red Tuesday, worries about the political crisis in Hong Kong, finished up 1.48%. The relief also won the Asian stock markets on Wednesday morning. Hong Kong gained 1.26% at the opening, and Tokyo gained 0.98%.
Donald Trump wants to force Beijing not only to reduce its trade surplus with the United States but also to put an end to practices that it considers unfair, such as the theft of intellectual property for example. Already $ 250 billion of Chinese goods and materials have been taxed by Americans for a year.
With AFP