President Donald Trump has approved a plan to impose punishing tariffs on tens of billions of dollars of Chinese goods as early as Friday, a move that could put his trade policies on a collision course with his push to rid the Korean Peninsula of nuclear weapons.
U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, left, shares a light moment with Chinese President Xi Jinping during their meeting at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, Thursday, June 14, 2018. (AP Photo/Andy Wong, Pool)
Trump has long vowed to fulfill his campaign pledge to clamp down on what he considers unfair Chinese trading practices. But his calls for billions in tariffs could complicate his efforts to maintain China's support in his negotiations with North Korea.
Trump met Thursday with several Cabinet members and trade advisers and was expected to impose tariffs on at least $35 billion to $40 billion of Chinese imports, according to an industry official and an administration official familiar with the plans. The amount of goods could reach $55 billion, said the industry official. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity in order to discuss the matter ahead of a formal announcement.
If the president presses forward as expected, it could set the stage for a series of trade actions against China and lead to retaliation from Beijing. Trump has already slapped tariffs on steel and aluminum imports from Canada, Mexico and European allies, and his proposed tariffs against China risk starting a trade war involving the world's two biggest economies.
The decision on the Chinese tariffs comes in the aftermath of Trump's summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un. The president has coordinated closely with China on efforts to get Pyongyang to eliminate its nuclear arsenal. But he signaled that whatever the implications, "I have to do what I have to do" to address the trade imbalance.
Trump, in his press conference in Singapore on Tuesday, said the U.S. has a "tremendous deficit in trade with China and we have to do something about it. We can't continue to let that happen." The U.S. trade deficit with China was $336 billion in 2017.
FILE - In this Nov. 9, 2017, file photo, U.S. President Donald Trump China's President Xi Jinping arrive for the state dinner with the first ladies at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, China. Trump is closing in on a decision to impose punishing tariffs on tens of billions of dollars of Chinese goods as early as June 15, a move that could put his trade policies on a collision course with his push to rid the Korean Peninsula of nuclear weapons. (Thomas Peter/Pool Photo via AP, File)
Administration officials have signaled support for imposing the tariffs in a dispute over allegations that Beijing steals or pressures foreign companies to hand over technology, according to officials briefed on the plans. China has targeted $50 billion in U.S. products for potential retaliation.
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo raised the trade issue directly with China Thursday, when he met in Beijing with President Xi Jinping and other officials, the State Department said. Officials would not say whether Pompeo explicitly informed the Chinese that the tariffs would be coming imminently.
"I stressed how important it is for President Trump to rectify that situation so that trade becomes more balanced, more reciprocal and more fair, with the opportunity to have American workers be treated fairly," Pompeo said Thursday during a joint news conference with Foreign Minister Wang Yi.
Wall Street has viewed the escalating trade tensions with wariness, fearful that they could strangle the economic growth achieved during Trump's watch and undermine the benefits of the tax cuts he signed into law last year.
"If you end up with a tariff battle, you will end up with price inflation, and you could end up with consumer debt. Those are all historic ingredients for an economic slowdown," Gary Cohn, Trump's former top economic adviser, said at an event sponsored by The Washington Post.
But Steve Bannon, Trump's former White House and campaign adviser, said the crackdown on China's trade practices was "the central part of Trump's economic nationalist message. His fundamental commitment to the 'deplorables' on the campaign trail was that he was going to bring manufacturing jobs back, particularly from Asia."
In the trade fight, Bannon said, Trump has converted three major tools that "the American elites considered off the table" — namely, the use of tariffs, the technology investigation of China and penalties on Chinese telecom giant ZTE.
"That's what has gotten us to the situation today where the Chinese are actually at the table," Bannon said. "It's really not just tariffs, it's tariffs on a scale never before considered."
The Chinese have threatened to counterpunch if the president goes ahead with the plan. Chinese officials have said they would drop agreements reached last month to buy more U.S. soybeans, natural gas and other products.
"We made clear that if the U.S. rolls out trade sanctions, including the imposition of tariffs, all outcomes reached by the two sides in terms of trade and economy will not come into effect," foreign ministry spokesman Geng Shuang said Thursday.
Beijing has also drawn up a list of $50 billion in U.S. products that would face retaliatory tariffs, including beef and soybeans — a shot at Trump's supporters in rural America.
Scott Kennedy, a specialist on the Chinese economy at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, said the Chinese threat was real and helped along by recent strains exhibited among the U.S. and allies. "I don't think they would cower or immediately run to the negotiating table to throw themselves at the mercy of Donald Trump," Kennedy said. "They see the U.S. is isolated and the president as easily distracted."
Ron Moore, who farms 1,800 acres of corn and soybeans in Roseville, Illinois, said soybean prices have already started dropping ahead of what looks like a trade war between the two economic powerhouses. "We have to plan for the worst-case scenario and hope for the best," said Moore, who is chairman of the American Soybean Association. "If you look back at President Trump's history, he's been wildly successful negotiating as a businessman. But it's different when you're dealing with other governments."
The U.S. and China have been holding ongoing negotiations over the trade dispute. The United States has criticized China for the aggressive tactics it uses to develop advanced technologies, including robots and electric cars, under its "Made in China 2025" program. The U.S. tariffs are designed specifically to punish China for forcing American companies to hand over technology in exchange for access to the Chinese market.
The administration is also working on proposed Chinese investment restrictions by June 30. So far, Trump has yet to signal any interest in backing away.
HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — Democratic Sen. Bob Casey and Republican challenger David McCormick will face each other in Pennsylvania's high-stakes U.S. Senate contest this fall, as Tuesday’s primary election put the men on track for a race that is expected to cost hundreds of millions of dollars and help decide control of the Senate next year.
Casey and McCormick won their respective party primary contests after they were uncontested and now enter what is likely to be a grueling, expensive and hard-fought 2024 general election campaign that culminates in the Nov. 5 vote.
Casey, seeking his fourth term, is perhaps Pennsylvania's best-known politician and a stalwart of the presidential swing state's Democratic Party — the son of a former two-term governor and Pennsylvania’s longest-ever serving Democrat in the Senate.
McCormick is a two-time Senate challenger, a former hedge fund CEO and Pennsylvania native who spent $14 million of his own money only to lose narrowly to celebrity heart surgeon Dr. Mehmet Oz in 2022's seven-way GOP primary. Oz then lost to Democratic Sen. John Fetterman in a pivotal Senate contest.
This time around, McCormick has consolidated the party around his candidacy and is backed by a super PAC that's already reported raising more than $20 million, much of it from securities-trading billionaires.
McCormick's candidacy is shaping up as the strongest challenge to Casey in his three reelection bids. McCormick, intent on shoring up support in the GOP base, told an audience of conservatives in suburban Harrisburg earlier this month that he tells people “you're going to agree with about 80% of what I say ... but we disagree 90% of the time with the crazy progressive left that's destroying our country.”
The Senate candidates will share a ticket with candidates for president in a state that is critical to whether Democrats can maintain control of the White House and the Senate.
President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump won their party nominations easily after all major rivals dropped out. Both men made campaign trips to swing-state Pennsylvania in recent days, and voters can expect to see plenty of them, their TV ads and their surrogates campaigning over the next six months in a state that swung from Trump in 2016 to Biden in 2020.
Of note, however, could be the number of “ uncommitted ” write-in votes cast in the Democratic primary to protest Biden’s handling of the Israel-Hamas war.
In the Senate contest, Democrats have attacked McCormick's opposition to abortion rights, his frequent trips to Connecticut’s ritzy “Gold Coast ” where he keeps a family home, and the focus on investing in China during his dozen years as an executive at the hedge fund Bridgewater Associates, including as CEO.
Casey has been a key player for Democrats trying to reframe the election-year narrative about the economy by attacking “greedflation” — a blunt term for corporations that jack up prices and rip off shoppers to maximize profits — as fast-rising prices over the past three years have opened a big soft spot in 2024 for Democrats. Recent indications that the U.S. economy avoided a recession amid efforts to manage inflation have yet to translate into voter enthusiasm for giving Biden a second term.
McCormick, meanwhile, has accused Casey of rubber-stamping harmful immigration, economic, energy and national security policies of Biden, and made a bid for Jewish voters by traveling to the Israel-Gaza border and arguing that Biden hasn’t backed Israel strongly enough in the Israel-Hamas war.
Casey is one of Biden’s strongest allies in Congress.
The two men share a hometown of Scranton and their political stories are intertwined. Biden — who represented neighboring Delaware in the Senate and roots for Philadelphia sports teams — has effectively made Pennsylvania his political home as a presidential candidate. Long before that, Biden was nicknamed “Pennsylvania's third senator” by Democrats because he campaigned there so often.
McCormick and Trump have endorsed each other, but are an awkward duo atop the GOP's ticket. Trump savaged McCormick in 2022's primary in a successful bid to lift Oz to his primary win. And McCormick, for his part, has told of a private meeting in which he refused Trump's urging to say that the 2020 presidential election was stolen, a disproven claim the former president has never abandoned.
Still, Trump, speaking to reporters after arriving at the courthouse in New York for his criminal hush money trial, urged people to vote in Pennsylvania and gave a shout-out to McCormick.
“lt’s a big day in Pennsylvania. And we hope that people get out there and vote. It’s important to vote to let ’em know that we’re coming on November 5th, we’re coming big,” Trump said. “Maybe they’ll think also about a very good person who’s running for the Senate in Pennsylvania: Dave McCormick. And he’s doing a good job. He’s working very hard, successful man, wants to put his success to the country.”
Democrats currently hold a Senate majority by the narrowest of margins, but face a difficult 2024 Senate map that requires them to defend incumbents in the red states of Montana and Ohio and fight for open seats with new candidates in Michigan and West Virginia.
A Casey loss could guarantee Republican control of the Senate.
Elsewhere on the ballot Tuesday, Pennsylvanians will decide nominees for an open attorney general's office and two other statewide offices — treasurer and auditor general — plus all 17 of the state's U.S. House seats and 228 of the state's 253 legislative seats.
For attorney general, Republicans have a two-way race while Democrats have a five-person primary field. Democrats also will decide on challengers to incumbent Republican state Treasurer Stacy Garrity and state Auditor General Tim DeFoor.
For Congress, 44 candidates are on ballots, including all 17 incumbents, just three of whom are facing primary challengers: Democratic Reps. Summer Lee in a Pittsburgh-based district and Dwight Evans in Philadelphia and Republican Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick in suburban Philadelphia.
Lee's primary against challenger Bhavini Patel has shaped up as an early test of whether Israel’s war with Gaza poses political threats to progressive Democrats in Congress who have criticized how it has been handled.
Voters will decide from among three would-be Republican challengers to Democratic Rep. Susan Wild, whose Allentown-based district is politically divided, and six Democratic candidates hoping to challenge Republican Rep. Scott Perry of southern Pennsylvania.
Perry has become a national figure for heading up the ultra-right House Freedom Caucus during a speakership battle and his efforts to help Trump stay in power after losing 2020's presidential election.
Associated Press writer Jill Colvin in New York contributed to this report. Follow Marc Levy on Twitter at http://twitter.com/timelywriter.
Jerome Upchurch reads voter's information in Spanish, posted outside the Fleisher Art Memorial election polling place on Tuesday, April 23, 2024, in South Philadelphia. (Jose F. Moreno/The Philadelphia Inquirer via AP)
Joe Khan, a Democratic candidate for Pennsylvania Attorney General, walks from his polling place in Doylestown, Pa., Tuesday, April 23, 2024. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)
Allegheny County Executive Sara Innamorato leaves her polling place in the Lawrenceville neighborhood of Pittsburgh, on Tuesday, April 23, 2024. (Arturo Fernandez/Pittsburgh Post-Gazette via AP)
"I Voted" stickers are set out at a polling place in Newtown, Pa., Tuesday, April 23, 2024. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)
"I Voted" stickers are set out at a polling place in Newtown, Pa., Tuesday, April 23, 2024. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)
Campaign signs are posted outside of a polling site in Doylestown, Pa., Tuesday, April 23, 2024. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)
A voter and child walk past campaign signs posted outside of a polling site in Doylestown, Pa., Tuesday, April 23, 2024. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)
Voting booths are set up at a polling place in Newtown, Pa., Tuesday, April 23, 2024. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)
Max Weisman, Communications Director with City Councilman Isaiah Thomas volunteers at a polling place inside the Free Library Falls of Schuylkill Branch in East Falls section of Philadelphia, as it prepares to open on election day, Tuesday, April 23, 2024. (Alejandro A. Alvarez/The Philadelphia Inquirer via AP)
Workers wait for voters at a polling place of in Bristol, Pa., Tuesday, April 23, 2024. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)
A voter marks their ballot at a polling place in Bristol, Pa., Tuesday, April 23, 2024. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)
A voter marks their ballot at a polling place in Bristol, Pa., Tuesday, April 23, 2024. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)
A voter marks their ballot at a polling place in Bristol, Pa., Tuesday, April 23, 2024. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)
Shown is an "I Voted" stickers at a polling place in Newtown, Pa., Tuesday, April 23, 2024. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)
Voting booths are set up at a polling place in Newtown, Pa., Tuesday, April 23, 2024. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)
FILE - Sen. Bob Casey, D-Pa., smiles while speaking during an event at AFSCME Council 13 offices, March 14, 2024, in Harrisburg, Pa. Tuesday's Pennsylvania primaries will cement the lineup for a high-stakes U.S. Senate race between Democratic Sen. Bob Casey and Republican challenger David McCormick, a contest that is expected to cost hundreds of millions of dollars and could help decide control of the Senate next year. (AP Photo/Marc Levy, file)
FILE Republican David McCormick addresses supporters at the Heinz History Center in Pittsburgh , Sept. 21, 2023. Tuesday's Pennsylvania primaries will cement the lineup for a high-stakes U.S. Senate race between Democratic Sen. Bob Casey and Republican challenger David McCormick, a contest that is expected to cost hundreds of millions of dollars and could help decide control of the Senate next year. (AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar, file)
FILE - This photo combo shows. Republican David McCormick, left, addressing supporters at the Heinz History Center in Pittsburgh, Sept. 21, 2023 and Sen. Bob Casey, D-Pa., speaking during an event at AFSCME Council 13 offices, March 14, 2024, in Harrisburg, Pa.. (AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar, Marc Levy, file)
