Donald Trump is preparing for a massive new trade war with China [View all]

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Source: Washington Post

ECONOMIC POLICY

Donald Trump is preparing for a massive new trade war with China

The former president has talked to advisers about imposing a 60 percent tariff sure to enrage Beijing

By Jeff Stein
January 27, 2024 at 6:00 a.m. EST



President Donald Trump talks with Steven Mnuchin during a meeting with Chinese Vice Premier Liu He on April 4, 2019, at the White House. (Bill O'Leary/The Washington Post)

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Former president Donald Trump is weighing options for a major new economic attack on China if reelected, considering plans that are widely viewed as likely to spark a global trade war.

Publicly, the GOP front-runner has endorsed downgrading China's trade status with the United States -- a move that would lead tariffs between the world's two largest economies to skyrocket. Revoking China's status as a "most favored nation" for trade -- which is applied to almost all countries the United States trades with -- could lead to federal tariffs on Chinese imports of more than 40 percent, according to one analysis. Trump has floated imposing a 10 percent tariff on nearly all $3 trillion in annual imports from all countries, including China.

Privately, Trump has discussed with advisers the possibility of imposing a flat 60 percent tariff on all Chinese imports, according to three people familiar with the matter who spoke on the condition of anonymity to relay private conversations.

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By Jeff Stein
Jeff Stein is the White House economics reporter for The Washington Post. He was a crime reporter for the Syracuse Post-Standard and, in 2014, founded the local news nonprofit the Ithaca Voice in Upstate New York. He was also a reporter for Vox. Twitter https://twitter.com/jstein_wapo

Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2024/01/27/trump-china-trade-war/