President Trump imposed tariffs on an additional $200 billion worth of tarrifs Chinese goods coming into the U.S., continuing an ongoing trade war between the two countries.
The new import taxes begin next week and will rise to 25 percent at the end of 2018.
According to Reuters, smart watches from Apple and Fitbit, as well as some consumer safety products, such as bicycle helmets and baby car seats, are exempt from the new tariffs.
The latest U.S. move could generate a tit-for-tat response from Beijing, which has said it would welcome new trade talks with Washington, but also suggested it would not engage in more negotiations if the U.S. imposed the tariffs.
In the statement announcing the new tariffs, Trump warned that “if China takes retaliatory action against our farmers or other industries, we will immediately pursue phase three, which is tariffs on approximately $267 billion of additional imports.”
In recent months, Washington and Beijing imposed 25 percent tariffs on $34 billion worth of goods headed across each other’s border.
Earlier Monday, White House economic adviser Larry Kudlow told the Economic Club of New York that the U.S. is “ready to negotiate and talk with China any time that they are ready for serious and substantive negotiations towards free trade to reduce tariffs and non-tariff barriers, to open markets, to allow the most competitive economy in the world, ours, to export more and more goods and services to China.
Trump declared on Twitter that the tariff increases he has imposed have boosted the U.S. economy, the world’s largest.
“Tariffs have put the U.S. in a very strong bargaining position, with Billions of Dollars, and Jobs, flowing into our Country –and yet cost increases have thus far been almost unnoticeable,” Trump tweeted. “If countries will not make fair deals with us, they will be “Tariffed!”
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