On Sunday, the United States started to impose 15 percent tariffs on a number of Chinese goods — including footwear, smart watches, and flat-panel television — as China started to impose new obligations on U.S. crude, the recent escalation in a bruising trade war.
U.S. President Donald Trump said that later this month the parties would still meet for discussions.
Trump, writing on Twitter, said his objective was to decrease U.S. dependence on China and again encouraged American businesses to discover alternative vendors outside of China.
A new round of tariffs came into effect from 0401 GMT (12:01 a.m. EDT), with Beijing’s 5% levy on U.S. crude marking the first time the fuel was targeted since the world’s two largest economies began their trade conflict more than a year ago.
On Sunday, the Trump administration started to collect tariffs of 15 percent on Chinese imports worth more than $125 billion, including smart speakers, Bluetooth headphones and clothing.
A range of research indicate that tariffs will cost up to $1,000 a year for U.S. households and a substantial amount of U.S. consumer goods will hit the recent round.
China began to impose extra tariffs on some of the U.S. products on a target list of $75 billion in retaliation. Beijing has not specified the importance of products facing greater Sunday tariffs.
The 5% and 10% extra tariffs were levied on 1,717 items out of a total of 5,078 products from the United States. As of December 15, Beijing will begin to collect extra tariffs on the remainder.
Steve Lamar, executive vice president of the American Apparel & Footwear Association, said the fresh tariffs introduced on Sunday were, “just in time for our most important selling season of the year. They claim that they are hurting China but, in reality, they are hurting us. Prices will go up, sales will go down, jobs will be lost.”
He said the United States “can make progress with China when we engage with them in calm, productive talks, not when we make it more expensive for Americans to get dressed everyday.”
Trump on Sunday cited comments from U.S. economist Peter Morici, who said tariffs wouldn’t impact U.S. consumers that much given a fall in the Chinese currency, and the president called on U.S. businesses to find vendors outside China.
“We don’t want to be servants to the Chinese!” Trump said. “This is about American Freedom. Redirect the supply chain. There is no reason to buy everything from China!”
He informed journalists later that talks were going on with China and that the two parties would meet in September in person.
“We are talking to China, the meeting is still on, as you know, in September,” he said. “We’ll see what happens, but we can’t allow China to rip us off anymore as a country.”
AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka told “Fox News Sunday” that Trump was right to confront China, but “unfortunately, he’s done it the wrong way. To take on China, there has to be a multilateral approach. One country can’t take on China to try to dry up its overcapacity because they just send it through to you in other ways.”
Chinese state media struck a defiant note.
“The United States should learn how to behave like a responsible global power and stop acting as a ‘school bully,’” the official Xinhua news agency said.
“As the world’s only superpower, it needs to shoulder its due responsibility, and join other countries in making this world a better and more prosperous place. Only then can America become great again.”
Tariffs could not hinder the growth of China, the governing Communist Party’s official People’s Daily said.
“China’s booming economy has made China a fertile ground for investment that foreign companies cannot ignore,” it said, in a commentary under the name ‘Zhong Sheng,’ or ‘Voice of China,’ which is often used to state its view on foreign policy issues.
Last month, after Beijing announced its own retaliatory tariffs on U.S. goods, Trump said it was increasing current and scheduled tariffs by 5 percent on Chinese imports worth about $550 billion.
Cell phones, laptop computers, toys and clothing tariffs of 15 percent will take effect on Dec. 15.
The U.S. Trade Representative’s Office said it would gather government remarks on a scheduled tariff rise to 30% on a $250 billion list of products already hit with a tariff of 25% set for Oct. 1 on Thursday through Sept. 20.
Chinese and U.S. trading teams keep talking and will meet in September.
For two years, the Trump administration has continued to pressure China to make extensive adjustments to its policies on the protection of intellectual property, compelled technology transfer to Chinese companies, industrial subsidies and market access
Trump has also linked trade talks and protests in Hong Kong, saying that he believes that the negotiations with the United States have led Beijing to be more restrained in its response to the demonstrations in Hong Kong.