Everyone Is on Edge at the G7 As Trump Disrupts Global Trade
The “Great Disrupter” Donald Trump certainly is ensuring he gets the
attention he so desperately craves as this weekend’s Group of 7 summit
gets underway in southern France.
Trump on Friday launched into a tirade against China,
announcing more tariffs on Chinese goods after China had announced similar, albeit less severe, measures on U.S. exports. Trump said he plans
to raise tariffs from 25% to 30% on $250 billion of Chinese goods, and from
10% to 15% on an additional $300 billion of goods that have yet to be placed under
tariff, according to The Washington Post.
That move responded to an earlier announcement by China that
it was imposing new tariffs on about $75 billion in U.S. goods, including auto
products.
Trump’s rant on Friday, which extended over nearly a dozen tweets and criticized both Chinese President Xi Jinping and Trump’s
own handpicked Federal
Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell, also “ordered” U.S. companies to “immediately”
begin pulling out of China’s market, which encompasses some 1.4 billion
consumers. To state the obvious, that’s an insane order.
The Post reacted
to that by writing, “The White House does not have the authority to force
companies to follow such directives, and Trump’s demand came under sharp and
immediate criticism from the U.S. business community, which warned that halting
sales with such a large trading partner would hurt American companies and the
broader economy.”
Trump doubled down on the threat late Friday, citing a
national security law called the International Emergency Economic Powers Act of 1977.
“For all of the Fake News Reporters that don’t have a clue
as to what the law is relative to Presidential powers, China, etc., try looking
at the Emergency Economic Powers Act of 1977. Case closed!” he tweeted.