American retailers have expressed dismay over U.S. President Donald Trump's announcement of 10 percent in tax duties on another $300 billion worth of Chinese goods.
According to The Guardian, multiple U.S. retail groups have expressed disappointment over Trump's continuous tirades against China. They said the tariff spat has already started hurting the U.S. economy.
Senior Vice-President for Government Relations at the U.S. National Retail Federation, David French, referred to the president's tax duty attacks as "a flawed tariff strategy." French added that the tariffs are just "creating uncertainty and discouraging investment."
Trump said on Thursday that he will see to it the new tariffs take effect on September 1 if a trade deal is not reached by then. His comments have since discouraged U.S. retail organizations and individual sellers.
Shortly after Trump tweeted his new tariff threats, global stocks dropped, signifying how markets and investors are negatively reacting to the news. The Dow Jones dropped 1 percent, while S&P 500 closed the day by a 0.9 percent decline.
Associate Managing Director at Moody's Investors Services, Elena Duggar, warned that the new tariffs will further "weigh on the global economy and supply chains." Duggar added that the re-escalation of the trade war does not help amid the "decelerating growth" not just in China but also in the United States.
With the White House opting to escalate tensions with the Chinese government, some economists are unsure how the trade war will end or if it ever will.
Former U.S. Ambassador to Singapore, David Adelman, who served his time during the Obama administration, said it appears the president could be making assumptions about the U.S. being taken advantage of when he sees that another country is on the rise.
Adelman went on to explain that while global markets have been trying to handle Trump's tariffs, "there's a limit" to what the world can bear as the U.S. economy's decline begins to drag the entire world with it.
Meanwhile, Bloomberg reported that their cellphones, at around $15 billion in total, maybe the items likely at risk of being hit with the new tariffs. Laptops are next in line, which are worth around $14.1 billion.
Other items on the list are panel TVs, toys with wheels, scale models, puzzles, VCR players, popular handheld power tools, USB drives, monitors, and other telecom devices that were not previously included in the tariff impositions.
It remains to be seen if the new tariffs will be imposed but economists and retailers are apparently unhappy about the Trump administration's new move. Former Commerce Ministry official and diplomat Zhou Xiaoming said with or without a trade deal, "China is prepared for the worst-case scenario."
