US main business lobby warns Trump against tariffs on China imports
The largest US business lobby has warned President Donald Trump against the ramifications of imposing hefty tariffs on imports from China.
"Simply put, tariffs are damaging taxes on American consumers," US Chamber of Commerce President Thomas Donohue said in a statement.
The statement pointed to reports that the administration is considering tariffs worth $30 billion a year, noting that imposing such a tax on Chinese imports would eliminate the majority of the benefits that American families are obtaining from the tax cuts put in place in December.
Donohue also warned that sanctions against China "could lead to a destructive trade war."
The warning by the US Chamber of Commerce comes as the White House is considering whether to punish China for reportedly putting US companies under pressure to transfer know-how to Chinese firms. The US administration has launched an investigation into the matter since last August.
Trump has proposed a controversial plan to impose hefty tariffs on steel and aluminum imports, including from China. He believes the tariffs will safeguard US jobs even as economists say the measures will destroy more jobs than they create and will hurt the very US companies and workers that Trump has said he aims to protect.
China has vowed to defend its interest in the face of growing US restrictions on trade.
Earlier in March, China’s Minister of Commerce Zhong Shan said Washington’s emphasis on its trade deficit with China, which the US uses as a pretext for imposing tariffs, was sometimes exaggerated. He said studies carried out in China showed that the US authorities overstated the deficit by at least 20 percent a year.
Estimates released by Washington last year put the Sino-US trade deficit figure at $375 billion, one of the largest gaps ever recorded.
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