A10
NATION/WORLD
East Oregonian
Saturday, August 24, 2019
China announces tariff hike on $75 billion of U.S. products
in retaliation, deepening a
conflict over trade and tech-
nology that threatens to tip a
weakening global economy
into recession.
China also will increase
import duties on U.S.-made
autos and auto parts, the
Finance Ministry announced.
Tariffs of 10% and 5% will
take effect on two batches of
goods on Sept. 1 and Dec. 15,
the ministry said in a state-
ment. It gave no details of
what goods would be affected
but the timing matches
Trump’s planned duty hikes.
The announcement comes
as leaders of the Group of 7
major economies prepare to
meet in France this weekend.
Washington is pressing
Beijing to narrow its trade
surplus and roll back plans for
government-led creation of
global competitors in robot-
ics, electric cars and other
technology industries.
On
Friday,
Trump
tweeted, “Our great Amer-
ican companies are hereby
ordered to immediately start
looking for an alternative to
By JOE MCDONALD,
PAUL WISEMAN AND
JILL COLVIN
Associated Press
WASHINGTON — Pres-
ident Donald Trump declared
Friday that he had “hereby
ordered” American compa-
nies with operations in China
“to immediately start look-
ing for” an alternative after
Beijing announced a series of
retaliatory tariffs.
But as markets in the U.S.,
Asia and Europe tumbled, the
White House offered no fur-
ther details or explanation of
Trump’s intentions.
Instead, the president
tweeted that he would be
“responding to China’s Tar-
iffs this afternoon.”
“This is a GREAT oppor-
tunity for the United States”
he wrote.
The U.S. has said it plans
to impose 10% tariffs on
$300 billion of Chinese goods
in two steps, on Sept. 1 and
Dec. 15. China responded
Friday with new tariffs on
$75 billion of U.S. products
AP Photo/Susan Walsh, File
President Donald Trump, left, meets with Chinese President
Xi Jinping during a previous meeting on the sidelines of the
G-20 summit in Osaka, Japan.
China, including bringing...
your companies HOME and
making your products in
the USA. I will be respond-
ing to China’s Tariffs this
afternoon.”
There are various poten-
tial options, including the
possibility of imposing a 25%
tariff on all Chinese exports
to America, one of the peo-
ple said. They spoke to AP
on condition of anonymity
because they were not autho-
rized to disclose details of
closed-door meetings.
Peter
Navarro,
who
advises Trump on trade pol-
icy, tried to downplay the
impact of Chinese tariff hikes
ahead of the meeting. He said
they were “well anticipated”
and would only strengthen
Trump’s resolve.
China’s
government
appealed to Trump this week
to compromise in order to
reach a settlement.
That came after Trump
warned that the American
public might need to endure
economic pain in order to
achieve long-term results.
The United States, Europe,
Japan and other trading part-
ners say Beijing’s develop-
ment plans violate its mar-
ket-opening commitments
and are based on stealing or
pressuring foreign compa-
nies to hand over technol-
ogy. Some American officials
worry they might erode U.S.
industrial leadership.
Chinese leaders have
offered to alter details but are
resisting giving up a develop-
ment strategy they see as a
path to prosperity and global
influence.
The talks are deadlocked
over how to enforce any deal.
China insists Trump’s puni-
tive tariffs have to be lifted
as soon as an agreement
takes effect. Washington says
at least some have to stay to
ensure Beijing carries out any
promises it makes.
Trump announced plans
to raise tariffs Sept. 1 on
$300 billion of Chinese prod-
ucts after talks broke down
in May. Increases on some
goods were postponed to
Dec. 15.
Trump escalated “trade
frictions” and is “seriously
threatening the multilateral
trading system,” the Chi-
na’s Finance Ministry said.
“China was forced to take
countermeasures.”
A separate statement said
tariffs of 25% and 5% would
be imposed on U.S.-made
autos and auto parts on Dec.
15. Beijing announced that
increase last year but sus-
pended it after Trump and
his Chinese counterpart,
President Xi Jinping, agreed
at a meeting in December
in Argentina to put off fur-
ther trade action while they
negotiated.
Trump and Xi agreed in
June to resume negotiations.
But talks in Shanghai in July
ended with no indication of
progress. Negotiators talked
by phone this month and are
due to meet again in Wash-
ington next month.
Putin orders symmetric measures after U.S. tests cruise missile
deploy the previously banned
missiles in different parts of
the world.”
He ordered the Defense
Ministry and other agencies
to “take comprehensive mea-
sures to prepare a symmetri-
cal answer.”
The U.S. said it withdrew
from the treaty because of
Russian violations, a claim
that Moscow has denied.
In an interview this week
with Fox News, Defense Sec-
retary Mark Esper asserted
that the Russian cruise mis-
siles Washington has long
claimed were a violation of
the now-defunct Intermedi-
ate-range Nuclear Forces, or
INF, treaty, might be armed
with nuclear warheads.
“Right now Russia has
possibly nuclear-tipped cruise
— INF-range cruise missiles
facing toward Europe, and
Associated Press
MOSCOW — Presi-
dent Vladimir Putin ordered
the Russian military on Fri-
day to work out a quid pro
quo response after the test of
a new U.S. missile banned
under a now-defunct arms
treaty.
In Sunday’s test, a modi-
fied ground-launched version
of a U.S. Navy Tomahawk
cruise missile accurately
struck its target more than
310 miles away. The test came
after Moscow and Washing-
ton withdrew from the 1987
Intermediate-range Nuclear
Forces (INF) Treaty.
Speaking at a meeting of
his Security Council, Putin
charged that the U.S. waged
a “propaganda campaign”
alleging Russian breaches of
the pact to “untie its hands to
that, that’s not a good thing,”
Esper said.
The Russian leader noted
that Sunday’s test was per-
formed from a launcher sim-
ilar to those deployed at a U.S.
missile defense site in Roma-
nia. He argued that the Roma-
nian facility and a prospective
similar site in Poland could
also be loaded with missiles
intended to hit ground targets
instead of interceptors.
Putin has previously
pledged that Russia wouldn’t
deploy the missiles previously
banned by the INF Treaty to
any area before the U.S. does
that first, but he noted Friday
that the use of the universal
launcher means that a covert
deployment is possible.
“How would we know
what they will deploy in
Romania and Poland — mis-
sile defense systems or strike
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missile systems with a signifi-
cant range?” Putin said.
A Pentagon spokesman,
Lt. Col. Robert Carver, dis-
puted Putin’s assertion that
the land-based U.S. missile
defense system in Roma-
nia could be used to launch
ground-attack missiles. He
said the U.S. launch system
in Romania, known as Aegis
Ashore, “does not have the
capability to fire offensive
weapons of any kind,” includ-
ing a cruise missile like the
Tomahawk variant used in the
Aug. 18 U.S. test.
“It can only launch the
SM-3 interceptor, which does
not carry an explosive war-
head,” Carver said, adding
that it would take “industri-
al-level construction to recon-
figure it to fire offensive
weapons. That reconfigura-
tion would entail major equip-
ment installation and soft-
ware changes.”
Russia long has charged
that the U.S. launchers loaded
with missile defense intercep-
tors could be used for firing
surface-to-surface missiles.
Putin said that Sunday’s test
has proven that the U.S. deni-
als have been false.
“It’s indisputable now,” the
Russian leader said.
He added the missile test
that came just 16 days after
the INF treaty’s termination
has shown that the U.S. long
had started work on the new
systems banned by the treaty.
While
Putin
hasn’t
spelled out possible retalia-
tory measures, some Mos-
cow-based military experts
theorized that Russia could
adapt the sea-launched
Kalibr cruise missiles for
use from ground launchers.
The Interfax news agency
quoted a retired Russian gen-
eral, Vladimir Bogatyryov, as
saying that Moscow could put
such missiles in Cuba or Ven-
ezuela if the U.S. deploys new
missiles near Russian borders.
Putin said Russia will con-
tinue working on new weap-
ons in response to the U.S.
moves, but will keep a tight
lid on spending.
“We will not be drawn into
a costly arms race that would
be disastrous for our econ-
omy,” Putin said, adding that
Russia ranks seventh in mil-
itary spending after the U.S.,
China, Saudi Arabia, Britain,
France and Japan.
He added Russia remains
open to an “equal and con-
structive dialogue with the
U.S. to rebuild mutual trust
and strengthen interna-
tional security.”