Greg Ip of The Wall Street Journal reports that you haven’t seen anything yet regarding tariffs on China. Could we see a 60% rate? He writes:
The U.S. trade deficit with China fell last year to its lowest in over a decade. This looks, at first glance, like a decoupling of the two economies thanks to the steep tariffs President Donald Trump slapped on Chinese imports in 2018.
Trump is spoiling to finish the job, floating a 60%, or higher, tariff on all Chinese imports if he’s re-elected this fall. […]
The catch is that Chinese companies are playing that game too. To get around American tariffs, their electric-vehicle and battery companies are building or contemplating new factories in countries that have trade agreements with the U.S., such as Mexico, South Korea and Morocco. […]
Of course, the U.S. could try to keep those imports out by hitting other trading partners with tariffs. Trump has proposed a 10% levy on all imports, not just from China.
This, though, is a recipe for the decoupling of the U.S. not just from China, but the whole world.
Read more here.
