Trump Suggests US Purchases of Soybeans, Tariffs on All Chinese Imports
In a tweetstorm, President Donald Trump said trade talks with China are continuing in a "very congenial manner," but that there is "absolutely no need to rush" because with the tariff revenue, the U.S. can pay for infrastructure and health care, and purchase U.S. farm products that were once bought by China. He said those purchases would be shipped to "poor & starving countries in the form of humanitarian assistance. In the meantime we will continue to negotiate with China in the hopes that they do not again try to redo deal!"
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He also tweeted, "China should not renegotiate deals with the U.S. at the last minute. This is not the Obama Administration, or the Administration of Sleepy Joe, who let China get away with 'murder!'" News reports have said that last weekend, the Chinese delegation faxed edits to many parts of a 150-page text that had been tentatively agreed to. Trump calls former Vice President Joe Biden "Sleepy Joe."
Trump said once 25 percent tariffs are levied on all Chinese imports -- and said the process has begun for that last tranche -- the U.S. will collect $100 billion in Section 301 tariffs.
Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue tweeted from Japan, where he was talking with government officials, that USDA will be quickly working on a plan to support farmers hurt by the trade war. He tweeted, "@POTUS loves his farmers and will not let them down!"
Trump tweeted, "Tariffs will bring in FAR MORE wealth to our Country than even a phenomenal deal of the traditional kind. Also, much easier & quicker to do."
Rep. Ron Kind, D-Wis., said of Trump, "he's still convinced that when you slap tariffs on Chinese imports that China actually pays it, and they don't." Kind, who spoke to International Trade Today in a hallway interview on May 10 at the Capitol, said not many Congress members are happy about the economic consequences of Section 301 tariffs increasing from 10 percent to 25 percent on about $200 billion worth of Chinese imports.
Rep. Brad Sherman, D-Calif., is one of the Congress members who is urging the administration on. "If I have any criticism of the China trade policy, it's that it's too timid," he told reporters May 9. He said when he told U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer that, "there might have been the faintest smile." Sherman said he told the USTR that China thinks they're going to win because U.S. politicians are divided. "I hope they recognize whatever our divisions are, that doesn't mean we're going to kowtow to Beijing."
The trade groups that represent ports and consumer technology companies said they oppose the increase in tariffs and the threats to tax all Chinese imports. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce also put out a statement that said, "The American business community urges the Administration and the Chinese government to move forward expeditiously and in good faith to strike a high-standard, comprehensive, enforceable agreement, and end the tariffs now in place. Prolonging trade tensions and the escalation of tariffs are in neither country’s interest."