U.S. President Donald Trump on Friday lashed back at a new round of Chinese tariffs by heaping an additional 5% duty on some $550 billion in targeted Chinese goods in the latest tit-for-tat trade war escalation by the world’s two largest economies.
He said the United States would raise its LIST 3 existing tariffs on $250 billion worth of Chinese imports to 30% from the current 25% beginning on Oct. 15, the 70th anniversary of the founding of the communist People’s Republic of China.
At the same time, Trump announced an increase in planned tariffs on the remaining $300 billion worth of Chinese goods to 15% from 10%. The United States will begin imposing those tariffs on LIST 4A starting Sept. 1, but tariffs on LIST 4B, about half of those goods, have been delayed until Dec. 15.
All told, more than two-thirds of the consumer goods the United States imports from China now face higher taxes. The administration had largely avoided hitting consumer items in its earlier rounds of tariff hikes. A study by J.P. Morgan found that Trump’s tariffs will cost the average U.S. household $1,000 a year. That study was done before Trump raised the Sept. 1 and Dec. 15 tariffs to 15% from 10%.
On August 13th, 2019, the United States Trade Representative (USTR) announced that the U.S. plans to impose a 10% tariff on Chinese-origin goods not previously impacted by the preceding lists. The newly impacted products are split into two groups (List A and List B), each with a different implementation date:
· List A can be found here and will go into effect on September 1st. This list includes footwear, certain types of clothing, and linens.
· List B can be found here and will go into effect on December 15th. This list includes foods, baby items, certain types of clothing, watches and certain types of electronics.
The scope of the September 1st and December 15th effective dates will be clearly defined when the USTR officially announces the tariff in a Federal Register notice, expected in the next 48 hours.
As this tariff announcement is not yet official, at this point we are only alerting you of a potential impact. We will share updated information as soon as it becomes available.
