Trump Trades Blows, Con't

The Trump regime will officially levy tariffs on $200 billion in Chinese imports starting Monday, costing American consumers an extra 10% for the rest of this year, and a whopping 25% starting in 2019.

President Trump threw his biggest punch yet at China, imposing tariffs on an additional $200 billion worth of Chinese imports and gambling that American consumers are willing to pay more for popular products to wring trade concessions from Beijing.

With Monday’s announcement, roughly half of the $505 billion in goods that Americans buy annually from Chinese firms will face new import levies.

Unlike the $50 billion in Chinese products that Trump hit in the first tariff wave, in July — which fell mainly on industrial goods — Monday’s action will affect consumer products such as air conditioners, spark plugs, furniture and lamps.

Starting Sept. 24, American importers will pay an extra 10 percent tariff for the affected items, rising to 25 percent at the end of the year, according to senior administration officials, who briefed reporters on the condition of anonymity.

China has vowed to retaliate against the latest U.S. tariffs with new import taxes on $60 billion in American products. If that happens, the president said he would immediately begin the process of approving tariffs on a further $267 billion in Chinese imports — effectively taxing everything Americans buy from China.

To recap, Trump is heading towards something like an extra $125 billion in costs to American consumers in a consumer-driven economy, a guaranteed recipe for economic disaster.  The best part?  Apparently he has no idea exactly how tariffs actually work.

At the White House, Trump wrongly said that “China is now paying us billions of dollars in tariffs” and he celebrated the Treasury Department collecting “tremendous amounts of money, which is great for our country.”

In fact, tariffs are taxes that are paid by Americans who import goods from abroad. Through the end of August, the administration had collected nearly $22 billion in revenue because of its new tariffs, according to the nonpartisan Tax Foundation. 

When consumer goods start skyrocketing in price just in time for holiday shopping, I'm sure we'll blame Obama for it all.  Hopefully the new Democratic Congress will put on the brakes.