Page 8A
NATION
East Oregonian
Saturday, July 21, 2018
BRIEFLY
Trump heightens China tariff
threat with no deal in sight
Trump was taped
talking of paying
for Playboy
model’s story
By CHRISTOPER
RUGABER
AND PAUL WISEMAN
AP Economics Writers
WASHINGTON
(AP)
— With President Donald
Trump intensifying his rift
with U.S. trading partners,
economists are growing
more doubtful that any deal
that might benefit American
workers and companies is in
sight.
Instead, many analysts
say they expect the Trump
administration to impose
more tariffs on China and
potentially other key U.S.
trading partners. With those
nations almost certain to
retaliate, the result could be
higher prices for Americans,
diminished export sales and
a weaker U.S. economy by
next year.
In an interview with
CNBC that aired Friday
morning, Trump renewed his
threat to ultimately slap tar-
iffs on a total of $500 bil-
lion of imports from China
— roughly equal to all the
goods Beijing ships annu-
ally to the United States.
The president has already
imposed tariffs on $34 bil-
lion in Chinese goods, and
Beijing has retaliated with
tariffs on an equal amount
of American exports. The
White House has also item-
ized $200 billion of addi-
tional Chinese imports that it
said may be subject to tariffs.
In addition, Trump has
told the Commerce Depart-
ment to investigate whether
imported autos and auto
parts threaten America’s
national security — the same
justification the president has
invoked for other tariffs he
has imposed or threatened,
including on imported steel
and aluminum. If the answer
is yes, the administration
says it could slap 20 per-
cent to 25 percent tariffs on
$335 billion of auto imports.
AP Photo/Andrew Harnik, File
President Donald Trump speaks before signing an Executive Order that establishes
a National Council for the American Worker.
Higher car prices for Ameri-
can consumers would inevi-
tably follow.
On Friday morning,
Trump for a second day
also criticized the Federal
Reserve, breaking with a
long-standing tradition at
the White House of avoid-
ing any influence, real or
perceived, on the indepen-
dence of the U.S. central
bank. Simultaneously, he
accused China of allowing
its tightly controlled cur-
rency to drift lower against
the dollar, a move that could
help Chinese exporters by
making their goods more
affordable overseas.
In a tweet, the president
said:
“China, the European
Union and others have been
manipulating their curren-
cies and interest rates lower,
while the U.S. is raising rates
while the dollar gets stronger
and stronger with each pass-
ing day — taking away our
big competitive edge.”
Last month, the Fed raised
its benchmark rate for a sec-
ond time this year and pro-
jected two more increases
in 2018. Its rate hikes are
meant to prevent the econ-
omy from overheating and
igniting high inflation. But
rate increases also make bor-
rowing costlier for house-
holds and companies and
can weaken growth.
Analysts say they’re
becoming more convinced
that Trump’s multi-front
trade fights aren’t merely a
short-term negotiating ploy.
Rather, he may be prepared
to wait as long as he feels
it necessary to force other
countries to adopt trade rules
more favorable to the United
States.
“People are underesti-
mating what we’re headed
for,” said Rod Hunter, a law-
yer who served as a White
House economic adviser
under President George
W. Bush. “He’s been say-
ing since the ‘80s that trade
deals are bad and we should
have more tariffs, and that’s
what we’re getting.”
Moody’s Analytics esti-
mates that if the tariffs
were imposed on autos
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Branson mourns
for 17 killed
in sinking of
packed duck boat
BRANSON, Mo. (AP)
— The country-and-west-
ern tourist town of Bran-
son, Missouri, mourned
Friday for more than a
Republicans pick
Charlotte to host
2020 convention
CHARLOTTE, N.C.
(AP) — As Charlotte,
North Carolina, celebrates
being chosen Friday to
host the 2020 Republi-
can National Convention,
an undercurrent of con-
cern about the potential for
violence runs through the
Democratic-leaning city.
The GOP’s national
committee selected North
Carolina’s largest city over
Las Vegas as hundreds of
party activists gathered in
Austin, Texas, for the com-
mittee’s summer meeting.
Mayor Vi Lyles, Char-
lotte’s first black female
mayor led the campaign
to bring the convention
to Charlotte and said in
a newspaper column that
it would be a chance for
the city to show its inclu-
siveness. The city coun-
cil voted 6-5 to extend the
bid, and Lyles emphasized
that the vote wasn’t an
endorsement of President
Donald Trump.
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and most Chinese imports
and other countries retali-
ate as expected, annual U.S.
growth would slow by 0.5
percentage point by mid-
2019. It expects that 700,000
jobs would be lost.
Global markets have
remained generally calm
despite the eruption of a
full-blown U.S.-China trade
war and the other conflicts
Trump has ignited. On Fri-
day, the Dow Jones indus-
trial closed down slightly.
“I’ve been surprised
that up until now, markets
seem overly sanguine about
the risks” of a trade war
between the world’s two big-
gest economies, said David
Dollar, senior fellow at the
Brookings Institution and a
former official at the World
Bank and U.S. Treasury
Department.
In the CNBC interview
that aired Friday, Trump reit-
erated his complaints about
America’s trade gap with
China, even though reform-
ing China’s technology pol-
icies wouldn’t likely narrow
the trade deficit.
NEW YORK (AP) —
President Donald Trump’s
former personal lawyer
secretly recorded Trump
discussing a potential pay-
ment for a former Playboy
model’s account of having
an affair with him, people
familiar with an investiga-
tion into the attorney said
on Friday.
The recording by attor-
ney Michael Cohen adds
to questions about whether
Trump tried to quash dam-
aging stories in the run-up
to his 2016 election.
Trump’s campaign had
said it knew nothing about
any payment to ex-center-
fold Karen McDougal. It
could also further entan-
gle the president in a crim-
inal investigation that
for months has targeted
Cohen, his onetime lawyer
and close ally.
Current Trump attor-
ney Rudy Giuliani said the
payment was never made
and the brief recording
shows Trump did nothing
wrong.
“The transaction that
Michael is talking about
on the tape never took
place, but what’s import-
ant is: If it did take place,
the president said it has to
be done correctly and it
has to be done by check”
to keep a proper record of
it, Giuliani said.
One of Cohen’s law-
yers, Lanny Davis, said
“any attempt at spin can-
not change what is on the
tape.”
dozen sightseers who
were killed when a duck
boat capsized and sank
in stormy weather in the
deadliest such accident in
almost two decades.
Divers found four more
bodies in Table Rock Lake,
bringing the death toll to
17, including nine peo-
ple from the same family
and the crew member who
was steering the amphib-
ious vessel. In their ini-
tial assessment, authorities
blamed thunderstorms and
winds that approached hur-
ricane strength.
Twenty-nine passengers
and two crew members
were aboard for a pleasure
cruise. Seven of the 14
survivors were hurt when
the vessel went down. At
least two children and two
adults were still hospital-
ized Friday. The captain
survived, authorities said.
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