The USA-China trade war started, Trump “not in a hurry” to speak with XI: News

US President Donald Trump said on Tuesday “not being in a hurry” to speak with his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping, on the first day of the customs rights war between the two heavyweights in the world economy.
“I will speak to him when the time comes to him. I am not in a hurry,” said Donald Trump to journalists from the White House.
“We will get out of it very well in front of China as in front of all other countries,” he said, adding that the United States “were respected again as a nation.”
Aimed from midnight by 10% additional customs duties on all its exports to the United States, Beijing immediately replied on Tuesday promising to raise customs barriers to a series of American products.
China plans to impose customs duties from February 10, 15% on imports of American coal and natural gas (LNG).
Customs taxes of 10% will also be applied to imports of American oil and other categories of goods from the United States: agricultural machines, large displacement sports vehicles and van.
Exports from Mexico and Canada to the United States should also initially be inflicted on customs duties (25%) from Tuesday. But Donald Trump granted them a one -month grace period on Monday after receiving commitments to strengthening border security.
Donald Trump presents these customs duties as a response to the influx of illegal and drugs in the United States. It denounces the lack of border control, accuses China of passivity in the face of production on its soil of chemical precursors of fentanyl, an opioid of murderous synthesis which is wreaking havoc in the United States.
These taxes promulgated by Donald Trump “does nothing to solve the own problems (in the United States) and disrupt economic and commercial cooperation” between the two countries, said the Chinese finance ministry.
China has also opened an antimonopoly survey against the American technological giant Google and announced that it has placed several American companies on its list of “unreliable entities”.
Many experts believe that the recovery of customs duties, if it continues, will result in price increases for the Americans, while the reconquest of purchasing power was at the heart of Donald Trump’s campaign.
Asked about the repercussions for households and businesses, the president and industry advisor to the president, Peter Navarro, replied “trust Donald Trump” on Tuesday, during an event organized by the Politico media.
– “Four years of uncertainty” –
The Republican President, who has repeatedly declared that “Tariff” was one of the most beautiful words of the dictionary, is happy to use them as a lever to obtain “deals” with the targeted countries.
Mexico has undertaken to send 10,000 additional soldiers to the border with the United States in order to combat illegal immigration. Their deployment began on Tuesday, according to Mexican president Claudia Sheinbaum.
Canada has promised to appoint an official entirely dedicated to the fight against fentanyl traffic, to launch a joint intervention force with the United States against organized crime and to register Mexican cartels on his list of terrorist organizations.
On the Canadian side of the border, the period of one month was welcomed as a welcome, but very fragile respite.
“I do not think that we can feel quiet for a while, we will stay four years in uncertainty,” until the end of Donald Trump’s mandate, Krysten Lawton, an employee of A FORD automaker factory.
Mexico, Canada and China are the main business partners in the United States and represent more than 40% of imports in the country.
Posted on February 4 at 9:53 p.m. AFP