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About East Oregonian : E.O. (Pendleton, OR) 1888-current | View Entire Issue (Aug. 2, 2019)
A6 NATION/WORLD East Oregonian Friday, August 2, 2019 Trump says he’ll put 10% tariffs on remaining China imports By PAUL WISEMAN, KEVIN FREKING AND JOSH BOAK Associated Press WASHINGTON — Pres- ident Donald Trump inten- sified pressure Thursday on China to reach a trade deal by saying he will impose 10% tariffs Sept. 1 on the remaining $300 billion in Chinese imports he hasn’t already taxed. The move immediately sent stock prices sinking. The president has already imposed 25% tariffs on $250 billion in Chinese products, and Beijing has retaliated by taxing $110 billion in U.S. goods. U.S. consumers will likely feel the pain if Trump proceeds with the new tar- iffs. Trump’s earlier tariffs had been designed to mini- mize the impact on ordinary Americans by focusing on industrial goods. But the new tariffs will hit a vast range of consumer products from cell- phones to silk scarves. The president’s announce- ment via Twitter came as a surprise, in part because the White House on Wednesday had said Beijing confirmed that it planned to increase its purchases of American farm products. That word came just as U.S. and Chi- nese negotiators were ending a 12th round of trade talks in Shanghai, which the White House called “constructive.” Though the negotiations concluded without any sign of a deal, they are sched- uled to resume next month in Washington. AP Photo/Ng Han Guan Chinese Vice Premier Liu He, center, poses with U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer, right, and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, for photos before holding talks at the Xijiao Conference Center in Shanghai on Wednesday. The Dow Jones Industrial Average, which had been up nearly 300 points earlier in the day, was down nearly 200 points after Trump’s tweets announcing the new tariffs. The Dow closed for the day down 280 points — more than 1 percent. Trump has long said he was preparing to tax the $300 billion in additional Chi- nese tariffs. But he had sus- pended the threat after meet- ing with President Xi Jinping in Osaka, Japan, in June. It isn’t clear when Amer- ican consumers are likely to feel the impact of the addi- tional tariffs, but higher prices could show up in stores this fall. “Attention all Target & Wal-Mart shoppers ... the price on the goods you buy ahead of the holidays are going up due to trade policy,” tweeted Joseph Brusuelas, chief economist at the con- sultancy RSM. Besides announcing the additional tariffs on Chinese imports, Trump tweeted that “we look forward to con- tinuing our positive dialogue with China on a compre- hensive Trade Deal, and feel that the future between our two countries will be a very bright one!” The president accused Beijing of failing to follow through on stopping the sale of fentanyl to the United States or on purchasing large quantities of farm goods such as soybeans. Speaking to reporters Thursday at the White House, Trump com- plained that President Xi is “not moving fast enough.” Trump said he sched- uled the additional tariffs to begin Sept. 1 to give exports already en route from China time to get to the United States — a journey that can take three or four weeks. By setting the import taxes at 10%, he has leeway to ratchet them higher if necessary to further increase pressure on Beijing. “Until such time as there’s a deal,” Trump said, “we’ll be taxing them.” The world’s two biggest economies are locked in a trade war over U.S. allega- tions that Beijing uses pred- atory tactics — including stealing trade secrets and forcing foreign companies to hand over technology — in a drive to overtake American technological dominance. Talks had broken down in May after the United States accused the Chinese of reneg- ing on earlier commitments. “The fact that this tweet comes after only one meet- ing with the Chinese delega- tion following the resumption of talks is extremely con- cerning,” said Rick Helfen- bein, president of the Amer- ican Apparel & Footwear Association. Wendy Cutler, a former U.S. trade negotiator who is now vice president at the Asia Society Policy Insti- tute, said: “These talks are not getting any easier. I don’t expect the Chinese to sit by ... The combination of these latest tariffs, with Chinese counter-retaliation, is going to take a heavy toll on U.S. consumers, workers, farm- ers and businesses.” Trump’s trade war and its consequences were a key fac- tor in the Federal Reserve’s decision Wednesday to cut interest rates in an other- wise healthy U.S. econ- omy. During a news con- ference, Chairman Jerome Powell pointed repeatedly to the uncertainty caused by Trump’s pursuit of trade wars on multiple fronts as a reason for the rate cut. The president’s decision to impose a 10% tax on an additional $300 billion of Chinese imports might have been predicated, in fact, on his confidence that Powell’s Fed stands ready to cut rates again. The bond market sig- naled its belief in that the- ory Thursday, with Treasury yields dropping sharply after Trump’s announcement. And according to the CME Group, market trad- ers now foresee a roughly 70 percent likelihood of another rate cut when the Fed next meets in September. Before Trump’s announcement, the likelihood was pegged at under 50 percent. Sarah Bloom Raskin, a former Fed board member, has warned that Fed rate cuts could embolden Trump to escalate trade battles for that very reason. In the meantime, the addi- tional Trump tariffs risk fur- ther souring the relationship between the world’s two larg- est economies. “The stage is now set for a further escalation of trade tensions between China and the U.S.,” said Eswar Prasad, a Cornell University econo- mist and former head of the China division at the Interna- tional Monetary Fund. “It has become clear that there is no clear path to a resolution of the trade dispute in the com- ing months, and China might choose to live with a trade war while waiting out the Trump presidency.” Trump has insisted that the tariff war is hurting China but not the United States. He tweeted two days ago: “Trumps got China back on its heels, and the United States is doing great.” But his administration is providing $16 billion in aid to American farmers — on top of $11 billion last year — to offset sales lost after China imposed retaliatory tariffs on soybeans and other U.S. farm products Justice Department declines to prosecute Comey over memos By ERIC TUCKER Associated Press WASHINGTON — The Justice Department has declined to prosecute for- mer FBI Director James Comey over his handling of a series of memos he wrote that documented personal interactions with Presi- dent Donald Trump, a per- son familiar with the matter said Thursday. The memos, some of which Justice Department officials later determined contained classified infor- mation, were written in the weeks and months before Comey’s firing by Trump in May 2017. A week after he was fired, Comey autho- rized a friend to describe the contents of one of the memos to the news media. He has said his hope in having one of the memos become public was to spur the appointment of a special counsel to run the Justice Department’s investigation into possible ties between Russia and the Trump campaign. The memos, taken together, reveal conver- sations with Trump that Comey has said unnerved him or made him uncom- fortable. Those include a White House dinner at which Comey says Trump asked him for his loyalty, and a private Oval Office discussion where the ex-FBI head said the president asked him to end an inves- tigation into Michael Flynn, the former White House national security adviser. FBI agents collected AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite In this Dec. 17, 2018, file photo, former FBI Director James Comey speaks to reporters on Capitol Hill in Washington. four memos from Com- ey’s house one month after he was fired, according to court documents made pub- lic this week as part of a lawsuit by the organization Judicial Watch. In court documents arguing against the public release of the memos, the FBI has contended that the memos include “highly sen- sitive information” about the Russia probe as well as certain classified details, including the code name and true identity of a source and details of foreign intel- ligence information. Comey has said he took pains to document other information in an unclassi- fied manner so that it could be made public and dis- cussed out in the open. That includes his February 2017 conversation about Flynn, the topic of the first memo described to the media. “So my thinking was, if I write it in such a way that I don’t include anything that would trigger a classifica- tion, that’ll make it easier for us to discuss, within the FBI and the government, and to — to hold on to it in a way that makes it accessible to us,” Comey said at a June 2017 hearing. The memos, some of which Comey described in a book released last year, were also pieces of evi- dence in special counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia investigation. The person who con- firmed the Justice Depart- ment’s decision was not authorized to discuss it by name and spoke on condi- tion of anonymity to The Associated Press. A lawyer for Comey declined to comment. John Lavinsky, a spokesman for the Justice Department’s inspector general, which had been investigating, said he could not confirm or deny the existence of an investigation. The inspec- tor general’s office is also expected to release in com- ing months an investigation into the origins of the FBI’s Russia probe. Worship Community PENDLETON LIGHTHOUSE CHURCH Sunday Service: 10am & 6pm Tuesday Kingdom Seekers: 7pm Wednesday Bible Study: 7pm We off er: Sunday School • Sign Language Interpreters • Nursery • Transportation • & more! Pastor Dan Satterwhite 541.377.4252 417 NW 21st St. • Pendleton, OR 97801 www.facebook.com/ PendletonLighthouseChurch Redeemer Episcopal Church OPEN HEARTS – OPEN DOOR www.graceandmercylutheran.org Sunday Worship 8:45 a.m. Sunday School 10:00 a.m. (Nursery Provided) Fellowship, Refreshments & Sunday School Check Out our Facebook Page or Website for More Information 241 SE Second St. Pendleton (541)276-3809 www.pendletonepiscopal.org Sunday Holy Communion 9:00 a.m. Wednesday Holy Communion Noon Weekly Adults Spiritual Life Group All Are Welcome Good Shepherd Lutheran Church Community Presbyterian Church FAITH LUTHERAN CHURCH LCMC 14 Martin Drive, Umatilla, OR 922-3250 in Mission for Christ LCMC Sunday Worship.........9:00 AM Bible Study......10:00 AM Sunday worship at 11:00 AM Pastor Michael Smith 420 Locust St. • Boardman, OR 541-481-6132 Worship: 10 AM Sunday School at 11:30 Red Lion Hotel ( Oregon Trail Room ) www.faithpendleton.org 541-289-4535 Pastor Weston Walker Grace and Mercy Lutheran Church, ELCA (First United Methodist Church) 191 E. Gladys Ave. / P.O. Box 1108 Hermiston, Oregon 97838 Seventh-Day Adventist Church Saturday Services Pendleton 1401 SW Goodwin Place 276-0882 Sabbath School 9:20 am Worship Service 10:45 am FIRST PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH SUNDAYS Morning Celebration - 10am Morning Kids Place - 10am Evening - 6pm Adult - Study Youth - Small Group Kids - Rangers & Girl’s Ministries THURSDAYS Celebrate Recovery - 6pm Celebration Place - Kids - 6pm The Landing - Teens - 6pm WEEKLY Groups For All Ages AN ASSEMBLY OF GOD CHURCH 1911 SE Court Ave. 541.276.6417 • pendletonfi rst.com 401 Northgate, Pendleton Celebration of of Worship Celebration Worship Sundays 10:00 am Youth: 0-6th grade Midweek Service Midweek Service Wednesdays 6:00 pm Youth: 0-6th grade Overcomer’s Outreach Jr./Sr. High ’ Pastor Sharon Miller 541-278-8082 www.livingwordcc.com Pastor Sharon Miller -Presbyterian Church (USA)- 201 SW Dorion Ave. Pendleton Service of Worship - 10:00 am Children’s Sunday School - 10:20 am Fellowship - 11:00 am www.pendletonpresbyterian.com Open Hearted... Open Minded To share your worship times call 541-278-2678 The Salvation Army Center for Worship & Service Sunday Worship Service 9:30 - Sunday School 10:30 - Worship Service Wednesday Bible Study 5:30 Family Fellowship Meal • 6:00 Bible Study COME AS YOU ARE 150 SE Emigrant (541) 276-3369 P eace L utheran C hurch 210 NW 9th, Pendleton 1909 SW Athens Ave., Pendleton Come join us for Worship at 10:45am on Sunday 541-966-8912 ELCA Join us Sundays 9:30 am Sunday Worship 10:00 am Sunday Worship 11am Fellowship & Adult Class 9am Sunday School ~Come and be at Peace ~ on 1290 KUMA noon each Sunday St. Johns Episcopal Church Behind These Stone Walls Beat the Hearts of Some of the Warmest Most Sincere, Most Caring People in Pendleton. We Invite You to Come Get Acquainted! Sunday Worship at 9:40am June - September Offi ce 541-276-5358 M-Thr, 8:30-12:30 www.fccpendleton.org Join Us Join On Our Journey With Jesus. Scripture, Tradition and Reason Family service 9am Sunday N.E. Gladys Ave & 7th, Hermiston PH: 567-6672 We are an all inclusive Church who welcomes all. First United Methodist Church Pendleton 501 SW Emigrant Ave. • Pendleton OR Sunday Worship 9am in the Community Room 541-276-2616 Worship Livestream at www.facebook.com/FUMCPendleton/ Open Hearts, Open Minds, Open Doors Patty Nance, pastor
