We know that President Trump has slapped a new 10% tariff on China, and for a bunch of reasons I hope he doesn’t relent.
In fact, today at a presser, here’s what President Trump said about talking to the Chinese dictator Xi: “we’ll speak to him at the appropriate time. I’m in no rush. I’m in no rush at that.”
Good for Mr. Trump.
In terms of China’s continuous unfair trading practices, we are learning that they never enforced the hard fought China Phase One Trade Deal negotiated by President Trump in his first term. As somebody on the China trade team, I can tell you dealing with China is like bleeding water from a stone. The key points were China’s constant theft in intellectual property and their forced transfer of technology. With very few exceptions they don’t let American-owned companies operate in China. They did not make the purchases of farm or manufacturing commodities.
Renegotiating could be an exercise in futility.
And that brings me back to Mr. Trump’s 10% tariff on China.
One very brilliant part of that is the so-called de minimis exemption has not been renewed. That’s the $800 limit on duty-free goods coming into the U.S.
That exception has exploded exponentially in recent years with cheap Chinese retail store goods coming into the U.S., putting out over 7,000 mom and pop retail stores out of business last year, and an expected 15,000 to close this year, according to Coresight Research.
I hope nothing like this is ever permitted again.
But wait, it gets worse because these $800 or less packages are not searched or investigated much if at all when they come in to Customs in the U.S.
The Chinese have used it to ship fentanyl-related chemicals and other pre-cursor parts directly into this country, through the so-called $800 de minimis exception.
So let’s hope President Trump never goes back to that $800 exemption or for that matter on any number of things. It’s bad enough the Chinese have bankrupt our mom and pop shops but even worse they’re killing hundreds and thousands of our kids.
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