USTR Releases New Details On China Tariffs

MNI London: The United States Trade Representative has released additional details on new US tariffs on USD$18 billion of Chinese imports, announced by the White House last week. The report can be found here.

• The report notes that public comment on the new tariffs will close on June 28 with the 2024 measures to take effect by August 1. Adding, "...increases in 2025 and 2026 be effective January 1 of the corresponding year."
• USTR Katherine Tai said in a statement: “The President has directed me to make substantial tariff increases on targeted, strategic products, and this is an important step to carry out that vision. The President and I will continue to fight for American workers, and for our economic future and national security.”
• USTR notes: "Economic analyses generally find that tariffs (particularly PRC retaliation) have had small negative effects on U.S. aggregate economic welfare, positive impacts on U.S. production in the 10 sectors most directly affected by the tariffs, and minimal impacts on economy-wide prices and employment."
• Reuters reports that one potential response from Beijing could be hiking tariffs on large gasoline-powered cars from 15% to 25%, noting the hike, "would hit principally German carmakers that export SUVs and sedans to China."
• WTO Director General Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala told FP on the impact of increasing US/China protectionism: "Some estimates we’ve made of trade fragmenting into two geopolitical blocs, for example, show that in the longer term, there would be a 5 percent loss in real global GDP. That’s very significant."