US, Chinese businesses tell Trump officials tariffs will damage American industries

Tariffs

US and Chinese Businesses Tell Trump Officials That US Tariffs will Damage American Industries

During six days of hearings, impacted business owners and trade groups have been seeking to influence the Trump administration, mostly requesting to be exempted from a massive list of tariffs on $200 billion in Chinese exports.

CGTN’s Daniel Ryntjes reports.

Bick Singh, President and CEO of NewAge Casting imports steel pipes from China, used in building drainage systems. He calls the threat of new tariffs “a rash decision” and complains that “We are just caught up in an economic warfare and we’re just taking turns trying to shoot each other. We’re not going to make anyone’s life easier. In fact, we’re going to hurt our taxpayers of this country by increasing our consumer costs.”

CIMC, a Chinese freight and transportation giant, is planning to invest in several U.S. manufacturing facilities to help meet future demand in China, Mexico and Canada. But, if tariffs are imposed on the company’s imported truck bed chassis, that investment capital won’t be available.

Frank Sonzala, the President and CEO of CIMC USA says “That tariff doesn’t go into anybody’s pocket, but the government’s. The government is not going to give it back to us to build a plant. If we don’t put that into a tariff, we’ll use that to build factories and for educating the people and get the product going, hire more people and have more jobs. It’s as simple as that.”

The possibility of a widening trade conflict also means that companies are having to factor in the dual burden presented by U.S. tariffs and Chinese retaliatory tariffs.

The U.S. agriculture sector is already being hit with targeted tariffs. Whether for or against these tariffs, many U.S. companies say they agree with the goal of opening up opportunities for them to compete in China on a level playing field and to address issues like alleged intellectual property violations and market access to China’s burgeoning middle classes—the largest in the world.

But, the American industries that are likely to be hardest hit have a simple message for the administration: the proposal to tariff $200 billion in Chinese goods will only hurt U.S. businesses, because Chinese suppliers will refuse to absorb the extra costs.


Haiyan Wang on the preliminary trade deal between the United States and Mexico

CGTN’s Elaine Reyes spoke with Haiyan Wang, a Managing Partner at the business research and advisory group China-India Institute, on the preliminary trade deal between the United States and Mexico and Canada’s conspicuous absence.