Tariffs
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Amid escalating trade tensions between China and the United States, some Chinese exporters are taking the drastic step of ditching shipments mid-voyage and surrendering containers to shipping companies to avoid crushing tariff costs.
Industry insiders have dubbed the move “preparing for the Long March”, a grim metaphor for what many see as a prolonged and punishing downturn in cross-Pacific trade.
A staff member at a China-listed export company, who requested anonymity, said its US-bound container volume had plummeted from 40 to 50 containers a day to just three to six as a result of the new tariffs on Chinese imports imposed by the second Trump administration. It has increased tariffs by 104 per cent this year, taking the total impost to around 115 per cent.
The new tariffs have triggered a backlash from Beijing and sent shock waves through global markets.
“We’ve halted all shipping plans from the Philippines, Vietnam, Indonesia and Malaysia,” the employee said. “Every factory order is halted. Anything that hasn’t been loaded will be scrapped, and the cargo already at sea is being re-costed.”
One client had told the company it was abandoning goods already on the water and giving them to the shipping company, as “no one will buy them after the tariffs are imposed”.
Reporting from South China Morning Post:
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Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent told reporters at the White House that the tumult in the market came because investors didn’t understand Trump’s tariff strategy.
“The market didn’t understand, those were maximum levels. The countries can think about those levels as they come to us to bring down their tariffs, their non-trade barriers,” Bessent said.
He said Trump “created maximum negotiating leverage for himself” and the Chinese have “shown themselves to the world as the bad actors”
insert eyeroll here
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All this on again/off again stuff must be real comforting for companies trying to plan ahead
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I thought the same thing.
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Op-ed praising Trump's genius tariffs moves, comparing Trump to Tuft, McKinley, Ford, Reagan:
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Meanwhile, Australia rebuffs China's overtures...
Australia has swiftly turned down China's offer to "join hands" against Donald Trump's tariffs, as Washington escalates its trade war with Beijing.
The White House recently imposed an import tax of 10% on Australian goods, but for China - Australia's biggest trading partner - raised tariffs to 125%.
China's ambassador to Australia Xiao Qian argued joint resistance is "the only way" to stop the "hegemonic and bullying behaviour of the US", appealing for Canberra's cooperation in an opinion piece on Thursday.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, however, said Australians would "speak for ourselves", while the country's defence minister said the nation would not be "holding China's hand".
"It's about pursuing Australia's national interests, not about making common calls with China," Richard Marles told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.
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China on Thursday denied any suggestion that it was in active negotiations with the administration of U.S. President Donald Trump over tariffs, saying that any notion of progress in the matter was as groundless as “trying to catch the wind.”
China’s comments come after Trump said Tuesday that things were going “fine with China” and that the final tariff rate on Chinese exports would come down “substantially” from the current 145%.
Guo Jiakun, a spokesman for China’s Foreign Ministry, said during a daily briefing on Thursday that, “For all I know, China and the U.S. are not having any consultation or negotiation on tariffs, still less reaching a deal.”
“China’s position is consistent, and we are open to consultations and dialogues, but any form of consultations and negotiations must be conducted on the basis of mutual respect and in an equal manner,” Commerce Ministry spokesman He Yadong said.
“Any claims about the progress of China-U.S. trade negotiations are groundless as trying to catch the wind and have no factual basis,” the spokesman said.
Trump had told reporters earlier in the week that “everything’s active” when asked if he was engaging with China, although his treasury secretary had said there were no formal negotiations.
https://www. apnews.com/article/china-us-tariff-negotiations-trump-481ff4402f5c34776ffcb8ced4c8ae42
