China Hits U.S. With Higher Tariffs on Soybeans, Cars, Oil

The strangest thing about this event is how nobody can agree on what has already happened. US consumers are being hurt, US consumers are doing fine, the US economy is teetering on the brink of recession and China is steady, China is teetering on the brink of total collapse and the US doesn't feel a thing... all of these contradictory claims have been made to me by internet commenters and media outlets. Shouldn't the effects of the trade war be objective and easy to measure with typical macroeconomic indicators? It beats me as to why there are so many contradictory claims.

I hope this trade war finishes quicker. Everyone playing this game will lose. Global supply chains are much more complex and complete impact is difficult to understand. Hope sense prevail at the end.

This is strategically released just before the G7, to make sure that this will be discussed, or maybe to put some pressure on the US before negotiating with its allies.

Per <i>The Washington Post</i> [0]:<p>&gt; A 25 percent tariff on automobiles and a 5 percent levy on auto parts take hold Dec. 15.<p>That means your car&#x27;s transmission replacement goes from ~$3k to ~$3200 (due to the additional markup on parts for time, labor, insurance, etc). Not too <i>too</i> bad for the end user, but actually bad for the parts companies, mechanics, tool and die makers, and others in the supply chain. This will be hurting your local repair shop very directly.<p>[0] <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.washingtonpost.com&#x2F;business&#x2F;2019&#x2F;08&#x2F;23&#x2F;china-hits-us-with-tariffs-billion-worth-goods-reinstates-auto-levies-state-media-report&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.washingtonpost.com&#x2F;business&#x2F;2019&#x2F;08&#x2F;23&#x2F;china-hit...</a>

Assuming the Chinese economy can hold up, Xi Jinping doesn&#x27;t have an election coming up in 2020.

Why not apply a value added tariff instead of purely import tariffs? China actually buys more from the US from a value added perspective than the other way around: <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.bloomberg.com&#x2F;news&#x2F;articles&#x2F;2018-06-12&#x2F;the-1-4-trillion-u-s-surplus-that-trump-s-not-talking-about" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.bloomberg.com&#x2F;news&#x2F;articles&#x2F;2018-06-12&#x2F;the-1-4-t...</a>

Pretty sure both sides have a b-plan to avoid massive damage, but someone definitely going to lose.

Well, that escalated at an intermediate pace.

China should just start a carbon tax and apply tariffs on imports from countries that don&#x27;t have an equivalent system in place.

USD shortage. Chinese tariffs and past import restrictions conveniently decrease pressure on their declining USD reserves (see link to article below).<p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.scmp.com&#x2F;economy&#x2F;china-economy&#x2F;article&#x2F;3012460&#x2F;does-china-have-enough-us-dollars-trade-war-escalates" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.scmp.com&#x2F;economy&#x2F;china-economy&#x2F;article&#x2F;3012460&#x2F;d...</a>

Big bucks Poker game played in public.

tariffs or Tarrifs?

Trump&#x27;s whole schtick is to come in with an incredibly aggressive posture (cancel NAFTA!), extract some concessions, then take a victory lap. When the concessions don&#x27;t come he gives up quickly (see the government shutdown). He has no real plan or capacity for a protracted and painful trade war. He hasn&#x27;t made the case to his people or his allies for what the goal even is, and whatever support he has will evaporate when the pain becomes serious, assuming he doesn&#x27;t just fold first.

China&#x27;s been conducting a trade war for several years. US finally woke up and now China&#x27;s trying to nip any resistance in the bud. I guess they couldn&#x27;t buy off the current president like they have others.<p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;1996_United_States_campaign_finance_controversy" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;1996_United_States_campaign_fi...</a>

I&#x27;m still baffled why Beijing is still goes THAT easy on USA.<p>It is fully in its capacity to make Washington to capitulate.<p>If they were to go with embargoes and not tariffs, things would be dramatically different, especially if they can nuke holiday season sales.<p>Just a plain clothing embargo would send all and every American retailer scrambling. There will be not enough merchandise in all India, Bangladesh, and Vietnam combined. And it will be even worse if Chinese factories in those countries would also join the embargo.<p>For things like regular household goods will also be no real alternatives as even export oriented economies like Vietnam import god knows how much plasticware from China just because it is often cheaper than manufacturing locally.<p>Just thing of how many &quot;dollar goods&quot; you buy every month, and what would you do if there would simply be none.<p>I instantly remember my childhood in early nineties Russia. We were one of richest families in the city or likely the entire Russian Far East, with father&#x27;s business and mom&#x27;s salary making few hundred thousand bucks a years, but from time to time we had to subsist on millet for months in a row for a simple reason that there were physically no other food in the entire region.