Featured Image Credit: JIM WATSON/AFP via Getty Images
Topics: China, Donald Trump, Politics, Tariffs, Money
Joe Yates
Topics: China, Donald Trump, Politics, Tariffs, Money
President Trump has announced plans to increase the levy placed on imports of major material used around the world, shortly after accusing China of 'violating' trade agreement.
That agreement was the 90-day tariff truce that was struck between the two nations earlier this month, after weeks of both Trump and President Xi Jinping slapping heavy taxes on goods coming in from each other's country.
Taking to Truth Social yesterday (May 30), the 78-year-old republican claimed that the Chinese economy was in danger due to the US placing tariffs reaching as high as 145 percent on some items - while China placed retaliatory tariffs of 125 percent on US goods.
Before adding: "The bad news is that China, perhaps not surprisingly to some, HAS TOTALLY VIOLATED ITS AGREEMENT WITH US. So much for being Mr. NICE GUY!"
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Typically, Trump did not go into detail into how China 'violated' their truce, however, Trade Representative Jamieson Greer later claimed that they failed to remove non-tariff barriers on US imports as per the agreement.
The same day, President Trump visited Mon Valley Works-Irvin Plant - a steel factory in West Mifflin, Pennsylvania - to announce plans that his administration is going to double the tariffs placed on steel and aluminum from 25 percent to 50 percent.
"Today I have a major announcement," he told the workers.
"We are going to be imposing a 25 percent increase - we're going to bring it from 25 percent to 50 percent the tariffs on steel into the United States of America, which will even further secure the steel industry in the United States. Nobody's going to get around that.
"Nobody's going to be able to steal your industry - at 25 percent they can sort of get over that fence, at 50 percent they can no longer get over the fence so congratulations to everybody."
The price of steel products has increased roughly 16 percent since Trump became president, according to the government’s producer price index.
While addressing steelworkers, the POTUS said US Steel will stay an American company under a deal for Japan-based Nippon to invest in the steelmaker. Few details about the deal have been made public.
It comes in spite of Trump initially vowing to block the Japanese steelmaker’s bid to buy Pittsburgh-based US Steel. However, he changed course and announced an agreement last week for what he described as 'partial ownership' by Nippon.
It's not clear if the deal his administration helped broker has been finalised or how ownership would be structured, although he stressed that US Steel would remain an American company.