On Thursday, March 22nd President Trump signed an executive memorandum that will impose about $60 billion worth of tariffs on China. These tariffs, once implemented, will be slapped on a wide variety of imported Chinese products. The Trump Administration came up with $60 billion value of the tariffs from an investigation into the intellectual-property theft from China based on a seven month investigation that concluded that around $50 billion would compensate for the money that has been stolen from America. Raj Shah, a White House official said on Wednesday the 21st that “Tomorrow the president will announce the actions he has decided to take based on USTR’s 301 investigation into China’s state-led, market-distorting efforts to force, pressure, and steal U.S. technologies and intellectual property.”

The tariffs signed by the President fulfill a campaign promise to challenge China on trade, which he says has been taking advantage of the US for decades. The trade deficit between the US and China has just hit an all-time high, at $375.2 billion over the last year in favor of China. After the announcement, many concerned stock traders sent the stock market into a spiral. On Friday, the day after the tariffs were signed, the Dow Jones fell 700-points. This result reflects the concerns of some Americans in result of these tariffs. However, this stock market quickly recovered and seems to be back to normal now. Along with this, many Senators and Congressmen on the left and some on the right have claimed that these tariffs would start a global trade war. Many–even the Speaker of the House– have openly defied the tariffs. The speaker stated, “We are extremely worried about the consequences of a trade war and are urging the White House to not advance with this plan.” On the other end of this big decision, the recipient China has just recently hit back on the US by slapping $3 billion on 128 different US products going into China. The $3 billion is in the form of a tariff and will force the US exporter’s more money to get their product into China. Although the future of the China-US relationship is still unclear, so far it seems that the tariffs have not been as catastrophic as many congresspeople and members of the media have portrayed it. Personally, I believe that these tariffs will do a good job of letting China know that the US will not allow them to steal from us anymore. China has been able to manipulate their markets in a way that allows them to reap billions of dollars from the US, who until now has refused to do anything about it.

Sources:

http://money.cnn.com/2018/03/22/news/economy/china-plans-to-hit-us-with-tariffs/index.html

https://www.cnn.com/2018/03/22/politics/donald-trump-china-tariffs-trade-war/index.html

http://fortune.com/2018/03/22/trump-chian-tariffs-intellectual-property/

Picture:

https://www.irishtimes.com/news/world/asia-pacific/china-can-fix-north-korea-problem-easily-and-quickly-trump-says-1.3285386