Companies that would be affected by a tariff increase on Friday span a range of industries, from seafood and fertilizers to handbags and copper alloys. Industry associations said on Wednesday that their members were uncertain whether the tariffs would go into effect on Friday and were reviewing contingency plans.
“When the U.S. and China fight, nobody wins, as the past year’s market gyrations, lost deals and strained diplomatic ties have made abundantly clear,” said Peter Robinson, the president of the United States Council for International Business, which represents global companies.
A spokeswoman for Mr. Biden, who is running for the Democratic nomination for president, pushed back against Mr. Trump’s tweet, saying on Twitter that the president’s approach to the China trade talks has hurt “US farmers, small business owners & consumers, who feel the brunt of his tariff war.”
The atmosphere surrounding the trade talks has shifted dramatically since a week ago, when observers in both countries thought a deal was imminent and that the tit-for-tat tariff war would soon end. Both sides had been discussing lifting tariffs on each other’s goods, along with a commitment from China to open its markets to American business, protect intellectual property and direct large purchases of United States products.
But steady progress toward a trade deal blew up last weekend, when China called for substantial changes to the negotiating text, and Mr. Trump responded by threatening to raise existing tariffs and impose new ones on an additional $325 billion worth of products.
It was unclear whether the two countries could bridge their differences before higher tariffs go into effect on Friday morning. That outcome will hinge on whether Mr. Liu comes ready to make a deal with the United States or is merely seeking to gather more information on acceptable outcomes before returning to China to gauge what is palatable to Mr. Xi.
“We’ve gotten an indication they want to make a deal,” Sarah Huckabee Sanders, the White House press secretary, told reporters on Wednesday.
from Best News Viral http://bit.ly/2vPX5Ad
0 Comments