Trump threatens another $200 billion worth of tariffs on Chinese imports

Tariffs

(FILES) This file photo taken on August 7, 2018 shows a worker watching as bags of chemicals are unloaded at a port in Zhangjiagang in China’s eastern Jiangsu province. The United States slapped steep tariffs on another $16 billion in Chinese goods on August 23, 2018, triggering a swift tit-for-tat retaliation from Beijing, even as negotiators from both sides seek to soothe trade tensions. ( AFP PHOTO / JOHANNES EISELE)
Published August 24, 2018 at 9:18 PM
Updated August 24, 2018 at 9:24 PM

A fifth day of lobbying the U.S. government for, and against, more tariffs on China is over. Another public hearing will be held next week on whether $200 billion worth of Chinese imports should go into effect.

However, despite the escalating trade war, talks between Beijing and Washington have restarted.

CGTN’s Owen Fairclough filed this report from Washington, D.C.

At the end of a week of conflicting signals about the U.S-China trade war, business owners and lobbyists spent a fifth day telling the Trump administration how another $200 billion worth of Chinese imports would affect them.

If they’re imposed (possibly in late September) some Chinese imports, like Mandarin oranges, will get hit with duties as high as 25 percent.

“Twenty-five percent is extremely high. And because Mandarin business is a very low margin and 25% is maybe a kill…damage the business,” Vivienne Ouyang, Chief Operating Officer of CHIC Group said.

The Trump administration is pressuring China into changing what Washington considers unfair trade practices that threaten American jobs and the economy.

The U.S and China have already hit each other with duties on $50 billion-worth of each other’s goods, but largely spared consumer goods. The next round won’t.

A new study from the U.S. National Retail Federation said consumers will pay billions of dollars more for luggage and furniture alone if those duties are imposed.