Trump retires in his commercial war

Washington – President Donald Trump retired on Monday about the part of the Chinese tariffs of his commercial war against the world, describing him as a great success that “would be fantastic for us.”

“They have agreed to open China, completely open for China,” he told journalists just before leaving the Middle East for their first extended foreign trip since he returned to the White House in January.

The new 30% rate in most Chinese products is a small fraction of the 145% rate that had established last month, but it is still three times the 10% rate that has said will be a baseline for all foreign imports, with higher rates of 25% for steel, aluminum and cars.

The lowest rate will last 90 days with the expectation of a broader agreement with China, but Trump said that even if the rate increases, it is likely that it will not return to 145%.

“You know, at 145, you are really decoupling because nobody is going to buy,” he said. “But they would be substantially higher.”

In any case, even if Trump is formed in a wide 10% rate for all foreign goods, it would be the largest import tax from which he deepened and prolonged the great depression almost a century ago and would impose a new tax on US importers of more than $ 2 billion for a decade. American consumers would finally pay that in the form of higher prices.

Andrew Harnik through Getty Images

“The president does not have a deal with China that manages to temporarily relax the self-inflicted damage of ‘Liberation Day,” said Douglas Holtz-Eeakin, conservative economist and former director of the Congress Budget Office. “Apart from selling some airplanes to the United Kingdom, it has nothing to show its Fusillade rate, except a weakened American economy.”

As it does almost every time he discusses his most specific tariffs on Chinese products during his first mandate, which he said he had done to force China to buy more agricultural products from the United States, Trump lied about his effect.

“You know, I took hundreds of billions of dollars from China,” he said.

In fact, neither China nor Chinese exporters paid a penny to the United States. American rates are collected by the customs of the United States of American importers, mainly wholesale and manufacturers, in the US entrance ports.

The retirement of Monday at China’s rates repeats what Trump did with his so -called “reciprocal” tariffs in all other countries. He announced higher import rates in dozens of nations that are not based on what these countries charge on US goods, as he said, but is based solely on the size of the surplus of a country with the United States, a metric to a large extent without meaning. He announced those rates with big fanfare on his “day of liberation” of April 2, but then put a 90 -day moratorium only one week after the market for US treasures. UU. He showed that buyers around the world were losing confidence in the US dollar.

Trump’s comments were produced at a press conference announcing their executive order that, by Fiat, it forces pharmaceutical companies to collect more Medicar for the medications than the lowest amount they charge for the same medicine anywhere in the world.

The problem has been a basic element for many Democrats for decades, who have pressed without success by the legislation that addresses the disparity in how pharmaceutical companies set their products worldwide.

It is not clear if Trump has the authority to force pharmaceutical companies to change their prices with a firm simply, instead of a real law approved by Congress, and the order can be blocked in court.