Protectionism (Trade)

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    China Strikes Back After Trump Imposes 10% Tariff on Goods

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    After a 10 percent tariff on Chinese products took effect on Tuesday, China announced retaliatory measures, including tariffs and an investigation of Google.Beijing responded swiftly on Tuesday to the tariffs President Trump had promised, announcing a fusillade of countermeasures targeting American companies and imports of critical products.Mr. Trump’s 10 percent tariff on all Chinese products went into effect at 12:01 a.m. Tuesday, the result of an executive order issued over the weekend aimed at pressuring Beijing to crack down on fentanyl shipments into the United States.The Chinese government came back with a series of retaliatory steps, including additional tariffs on liquefied natural gas, coal, farm machinery and other products from the United States. It also said it had implemented restrictions on the export of certain critical minerals, many of which are used in the production of high-tech products.In addition, Chinese market regulators said they had launched an antimonopoly investigation into Google. Google is blocked from China’s internet, but the move may disrupt the company’s dealings with Chinese companies.The U.S. tariffs, which Mr. Trump said on Monday were an “opening salvo,” come on top of levies that the president imposed during his first term. Many Chinese products already faced a 10 or 25 percent tariff, and the move adds a 10 percent tariff to more than $400 billion of goods that Americans purchase from China each year.Mr. Trump had been planning to hit America’s three largest trading partners, Canada, Mexico and China, with tariffs of varying degrees. But after days of frantic negotiations, Mr. Trump agreed to pause the tariffs on Mexico and Canada for 30 days after the Canadian and Mexican governments promised to step up their oversight of fentanyl and the border.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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    Trump Wields U.S. Power With Unclear Economic Consequences

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    President Trump is brandishing the U.S. economy like a weapon, threatening to put more than a trillion dollars of trade on the line with economic wars on multiple fronts.In a high-stakes confrontation that lasted over the weekend and into Monday, Mr. Trump promised to put tariffs on the United States’ closest trading partners, which are together responsible for more than 40 percent of American imports, to try to force them to accede to his demands.Mr. Trump was pushing Canada, Mexico and China to stop flows of migrants at the border — one of his major domestic policy issues — as well as to stem shipments of deadly drugs, and offer the United States better terms when it comes to trade relationships.Both Canada and Mexico earned slight reprieves on Monday after Mr. Trump agreed to delay tariffs of 25 percent — which were supposed to go into effect on Tuesday — for a month. That decision came after President Claudia Sheinbaum of Mexico promised to reinforce the U.S.-Mexico border with 10,000 members of its National Guard. Justin Trudeau, the Canadian prime minister, said Canada would appoint a fentanyl czar, launch a joint strike force to combat organized crime and list cartels as terrorists, among other steps.China has not received any such reprieve and Mr. Trump on Monday said that the 10 percent tariffs that will go into effect on Tuesday were simply an “opening salvo.”Speaking from the Oval Office, the president also made clear that he would use tariffs liberally to get other governments to give him what he wants, essentially saying he would leverage America’s economic strength to bully other nations.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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    After Tariff Fight With Canada and Mexico, Trump’s Next Target Is Europe

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    Europe, you’re next.That’s the latest message from President Trump, who has repeatedly said in recent days that he would slap punitive tariffs on the 27 members of the European Union.Tariffs “will definitely happen with the European Union,” Mr. Trump told the BBC Sunday evening, and they are coming “pretty soon.” He doubled down on the threat on Monday, complaining about deficits in auto and farm products. New tariffs were set to go into effect on imports from Canada, China and Mexico on Tuesday, but on Monday Mexico and Canada were granted a one-month delay.“The European Union has abused the United States for years, and they can’t do that,” Mr. Trump said on Monday.A head-spinning blitz of executive orders and policy reversals related to international trade, aid and agreements has come out of the White House in the past two weeks. But one common thread is that Mr. Trump has directed the harshest penalties at some of America’s closest economic and military allies.One reason is that the United States has large trade deficits with Mexico, Canada and the European Union in addition to China, said Agathe Demarais, a senior policy fellow at the European Council on Foreign Relations.“Trump is obsessed with trade deficits,” she said. And he may be “starting with the places where he feels he will have quick wins.”We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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    Trump’s Trade Move Could Increase Costs for Many Online Goods

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    President Trump’s decision to impose hefty tariffs on Canada, Mexico and China included a little-noticed but significant change to how online purchases will be taxed when they enter the United States.One provision of Mr. Trump’s executive order will increase costs for more than 80 percent of U.S. e-commerce imports. The decision could shift the landscape for online sales from Chinese vendors like Shein and Temu that have swiftly expanded their market share by sending cheap goods into the United States.The president’s order erased a workaround that many companies have taken advantage of in recent years, particularly since Mr. Trump imposed tariffs on Chinese products in his first term. The provision, known as the de minimis exception, allowed certain products that were sent directly to consumers from online platforms to come into the United States without facing tariffs, a huge tax advantage.This obscure provision of trade law underpins major business models. Shein, Temu and many sellers on Amazon have used the de minimis exemption to bypass tariffs. The exemption allows packages to be shipped from other countries without paying tariffs, as long as the shipments do not exceed $800 per recipient per day.But critics say the de minimis measure has also helped fuel an American drug crisis. Importers who use de minimis do not have to provide as much information to U.S. Customs and Border Protection as they do with other packages, for ease of processing. That means drugs and the precursors used to make them could be more easily shipped into the United States without the government catching them.De minimis stems from a century-old trade law that was originally intended for shipments that would be too trivial to merit the attention of customs. But the use of this provision has exploded in popularity.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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    Trump Tariffs Threaten to Upend Global Economic Order

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    The invoking of national security to unravel trade agreements could scramble the international trading system in China’s favor.President Trump’s move this weekend to slap sweeping tariffs on Canada, Mexico and China is threatening to fracture the global trading system and a world economic order that once revolved around a U.S. economy that prized open investment and free markets.The speed and scope of the import duties that Mr. Trump unveiled in executive orders on Saturday prompted widespread criticism from many lawmakers, economists and business groups, who assailed the actions as economic malpractice. They warned that the tariffs, which were levied in response to Mr. Trump’s concerns about fentanyl smuggling and illegal immigration, could inflame inflation, cripple American industries and make China an even more powerful global trade hub.Mr. Trump on Sunday defended the tariffs while acknowledging that there could be some negative consequences.“WILL THERE BE SOME PAIN? YES, MAYBE (AND MAYBE NOT!),” he wrote on social media.The executive orders mean that on Tuesday at 12:01 a.m., all goods imported from Canada and Mexico will be subject to a 25 percent tariff, except Canadian energy products, which will face a 10 percent tariff. All Chinese goods will also face a 10 percent tariff.Canada and Mexico have vowed to retaliate swiftly with tariffs of their own, and China said it would pursue unspecified “countermeasures” to safeguard its interests.Speaking on NewsNation on Sunday, Mr. Trump’s senior trade adviser, Peter Navarro, said it was unlikely that the tariffs would be stopped at the last minute.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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    What Is IEEPA, the Law Trump Used to Impose Tariffs?

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    President Trump said on Saturday that he would impose tariffs on Mexico, Canada and China using a decades-old law that gives the president sweeping economic powers during a national emergency.“This was done through the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) because of the major threat of illegal aliens and deadly drugs killing our Citizens, including fentanyl,” Mr. Trump wrote in a social media post on Saturday. “We need to protect Americans, and it is my duty as President to ensure the safety of all.”On his first day back in office, Mr. Trump declared a national emergency at the southern border. On Saturday, he said he would expand the scope of the emergency and hit the country’s three largest trading partners with tariffs because they had “failed” to do more to stop the flow of migrants or illegal fentanyl into the United States.In recent weeks, Mr. Trump had threatened to use the law to impose steep tariffs on other countries like Colombia, which eventually agreed to allow U.S. military planes to fly deportees into the country after Mr. Trump said he would seek tariffs on all Colombian imports.“This is a very broad tool that affords the president a lot of latitude to impose potentially really substantial economic costs on partners,” said Philip Luck, the economics program director at the Center for Strategic and International Studies and a former deputy chief economist at the State Department during the Biden administration. “This is a pretty big stick you can use.”What is IEEPA?The International Emergency Economic Powers Act of 1977 gives the president broad powers to regulate various financial transactions upon declaring a national emergency. Under the law, presidents can take a wide variety of economic actions “to deal with any unusual and extraordinary threat, which has its source in whole or substantial part outside the United States, to the national security, foreign policy or economy” of the country.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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    Trump’s Canada and Mexico Tariffs Could Hurt Carmakers

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    General Motors and a few other companies make as much as 40 percent of their North American cars and trucks in Canada and Mexico, leaving them vulnerable to tariffs.Almost all automakers are going to feel a pinch from the new tariffs imposed by President Trump on Saturday on goods imported from Canada, Mexico and China.Auto manufacturers ship tens of billions of dollars worth of finished automobiles, engines, transmissions and other components each week across the U.S. borders with Canada and Mexico. Billions of dollars more are imported from parts manufacturers in China.The tariffs, which will take effect at 12:01 a.m. on Tuesday, are widely expected to raise the prices that American consumers pay for new automobiles. And the tariffs come at a time when new cars and trucks are already selling for near record prices.General Motors, the largest U.S. automaker, will probably be most affected.G.M. produces many more vehicles in Mexico than any other manufacturer — over 842,000 in 2024, according to MarkLines, an auto-industry data provider. And some of those vehicles are the most important in the company’s lineup.All of the Chevrolet Equinox and Blazer sport-utility vehicles G.M. sells in the United States come from Mexico. The Chevrolet Silverado pickup truck, a top-selling model, and the similar GMC Sierra pickup generate huge profits for the company. Of the more than one million of those trucks built last year, nearly half were produced in Canadian and Mexican plants, data from MarkLines shows.All told, G.M. plants in Canada and Mexico produced nearly 40 percent of all vehicles the company made last year in North America, the region where it gets most of its revenue and almost all of its profits.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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    Trump’s Tariffs Would Reverse Decades of Integration Between U.S. and Mexico

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    Ties between the United States and Mexico have deepened over 30 years of free trade, creating both benefits and irritants.When Dennis Nixon started working at a regional bank in Laredo, Texas, in 1975, there was just a trickle of trade across the border with Mexico. Now, nearly a billion dollars of commerce and more than 15,000 trucks roll over the line every day just a quarter mile from his office, binding the economies of the United States and Mexico together.Laredo is America’s busiest port, and a conduit for car parts, gasoline, avocados and computers. “You cannot pick it apart anymore,” Mr. Nixon said of the U.S. and Mexican economies. Thirty years of economic integration under a free trade deal has created “interdependencies and relationships that you don’t always understand and measure, until something goes wrong,” he said.Now that something is looming: 25 percent tariffs on Mexican products, which President Trump plans to impose on Saturday as he looks to pressure the Mexican government to do more to curb illegal immigration. Mr. Trump is also expected to hit Canada with 25 percent levies and impose a 10 percent tax on Chinese imports.A longtime proponent of tariffs and a critic of free trade deals, Mr. Trump seems unafraid to upend America’s closest economic relationships. He is focusing on strengthening the border against illegal immigration and the flow of fentanyl, two areas that he spoke about often during his 2024 campaign.But the president has other beefs with Mexico, including the economic competition it poses for U.S. workers. The president and his supporters believe that imports of cars and steel from Mexico are weakening U.S. manufacturers. And they say the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement, the trade deal Mr. Trump signed in 2020 to replace the North American Free Trade Agreement, needs to be updated — or perhaps, in some minds, scrapped.Many businesses say ties between the countries run deeper than most Americans realize, and policies like tariffs that seek to sever them would be painful. Of all the world’s major economic partners, the United States and Mexico are among the most integrated — linked by business, trade, tourism, familial ties, remittances and culture. It’s a closeness that at times generates discontent and efforts to distance the relationship, but also brings many benefits.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More