After trade talks broke down at the last minute two weeks ago the Trump administration raised tariffs on $200 billion of Chinese goods from 10% to 20% or 25%. In response, China raised its tariffs from 10% to 25% but they have delayed the implementation to June 1.
The trade war is of particular interest to Trump who has long believed China is taking advantage of American companies through intellectual property theft, product dumping, baseless investigations and state subsidies – which is true. The question now is who caves first. Unfortunately, Democratic systems are more likely to lose trade wars with authoritarian regimes that do not have to respond to popular opinion.
Side note: Trump repeatedly states the treasury is taking in tens of billions of dollars from tariffs. That is a lie. Importers pay the tax and pass the cost along to consumers (us).
The Lens 