US rushes to ready new China tariffs as firms say Donald Trump’s decisions ‘made with a tweet’ leave them no time to plan
- American companies make last-ditch appeal to be spared from latest round of duties
- US Trade Representative Lighthizer under pressure to revise initial list targeting more than 3,800 Chinese product lines
The Trump administration is rushing to finalise a list of US$300 billion in Chinese imports it plans to hit with tariffs in a few weeks’ time, as US companies make a last-ditch appeal to be spared from the latest round of duties.
US President Donald Trump’s announcement last week on adding a 10 per cent tariff as of September 1 to virtually every Chinese import that is not yet subject to punitive duties took US Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer by surprise, people familiar with the discussions said.
Lighthizer and his staff are now under pressure to revise an initial list targeting more than 3,800 Chinese product lines based on issues raised during a public comment period and hearings.
The USTR is planning to publish the final list this week or early next, the people said. In that meantime, companies are making a final attempt at convincing the Trump administration not to impose duties or to drop items they import from the tariff list.
In a meeting shortly before the president announced the new duties, Lighthizer argued against them. He instead urged patience to allow more time for a tariff increase in June to 25 per cent from 10 per cent on an earlier round of US$200 billion worth of Chinese imports to inflict pain on the Asian economy, the people said.