President Trump Is Great Again

President Donald Trump approves tariffs on $50 billion worth of Chinese goods

By Pamela Brown and Julia Horowitz


President Donald Trump has given his approval for the United States to put tariffs on $50 billion of Chinese exports, according to a source with knowledge of the situation.
An official announcement is expected on Friday. 

The president's green light came after a meeting Thursday with top economic officials, including Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross and US Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer.
The move represents a serious escalation of trade tensions between the world's two largest economies.
It was first reported by Bloomberg.
Beijing previously said it would respond to American tariffs on $50 billion worth of Chinese exports with retaliatory tariffs on $50 billion of US products such as cars, planes and soybeans.
For months, President Trump has slow-walked threats of tariffs against China as punishment for intellectual property theft.
He first announced that the United States would impose trade penalties on about $50 billion of Chinese goods in March.
"We have a tremendous intellectual property theft problem," President Trump said at the time. "It's going to make us a much stronger, much richer nation."
After China warned it would retaliate, Trump threatened tariffs on a further $100 billion of Chinese products.
In mid-May, both sides announced a ceasefire after two rounds of trade negotiations.
The countries said in a joint statement that China would "significantly increase" purchases of US agricultural and energy products to reduce the trade imbalance, a top Trump administration demand. Mnuchin subsequently declared the trade war "on hold."
Ten days later, the White House abruptly said it would proceed with the tariffs, along with new limits on Chinese investments in the United States.
The Trump administration said it would finalize the list of goods that would be subject to 25% tariffs by June 15, and that the tariffs would go into effect "shortly thereafter." 

An initial list, which including items ranging from artificial teeth to flamethrowers, was released at the beginning of April.
A further round of trade talks in Beijing earlier this month failed to yield any breakthroughs. 

And the Chinese government warned then it wouldn't honor its pledge to increase purchases of US goods if tariffs were imposed.
The Trump administration last week cut a deal with Chinese telecommunications firm ZTE to end a crippling ban that prevented the company from buying American parts. 

ZTE's fate had become entwined in the trade talks. 

But the agreement to save the company has faced resistance from lawmakers in Congress, who argue the ban should stay in place because ZTE poses a security threat.
President Trump's decision to move forward with tariffs on China follows his recent imposition of steep tariffs on steel and aluminum imports from Canada, Mexico and the European Union on national security grounds.

Rogue Nation

China’s Intellectual Property Theft Must Stop
By DENNIS C. BLAIR and KEITH ALEXANDER

President Trump on Monday instructed the office of the United States Trade Representative to consider an investigation into China’s sustained and widespread attacks on America’s intellectual property. 

This investigation will provide the evidence for holding China accountable for a decades-long assault on the intellectual property of the United States and its allies.
For too long, the United States has treated China as a developing nation to be coaxed and lectured, while tolerating its bad behavior as merely growing pains. 

There has been an expectation that as China’s economy matures, it will of its own accord adopt international standards in commerce, including protection for intellectual property. 

There has also been a tendency to excuse mercantilist behavior, including industrial espionage, as a passing phase, and to justify inaction as necessary to secure Chinese cooperation on other, supposedly more important, issues.
Chinese companies, with the encouragement of official Chinese policy and the active participation of government personnel, have been pillaging the intellectual property of American companies. 

All together, intellectual-property theft costs America up to $600 billion a year, the greatest transfer of wealth in history. 

China accounts for most of that loss.
Intellectual-property theft covers a wide spectrum: counterfeiting American fashion designs, pirating movies and video games, patent infringement and stealing proprietary technology and software. 

This assault saps economic growth, costs Americans jobs, weakens our military capability and undercuts a key American competitive advantage — innovation.

Chinese companies have stolen trade secrets from virtually every sector of the American economy: automobiles, auto tires, aviation, chemicals, consumer electronics, electronic trading, industrial software, biotech and pharmaceuticals. 

Last year U.S. Steel accused Chinese hackers of stealing trade secrets related to the production of lightweight steel, then turning them over to Chinese steel makers.

Perhaps most concerning, China has targeted the American defense industrial base. 

Chinese spies have gone after private defense contractors and subcontractors, national laboratories, public research universities, think tanks and the American government itself. 

Chinese agents have gone after the United States’ most significant weapons, such as the F-35 Lightning, the Aegis Combat System and the Patriot missile system; illegally exported unmanned underwater vehicles and thermal-imaging cameras; and stolen documents related to the B-52 bomber, the Delta IV rocket, the F-15 fighter and even the Space Shuttle.
President Trump’s action on Monday acknowledges the broad scope of the challenge. 

Central to Chinese cybersecurity law is the “secure and controllable” standard, which, in the name of protecting software and data, forces companies operating in China to disclose critical intellectual property to the government and requires that they store data locally. 

Even before this Chinese legislation, some three-quarters of Chinese imported software was pirated. 

Now, despite the law, American companies may be even more vulnerable.
For decades, successive American administrations have concluded that some level of exposure to China’s depredations against our intellectual property is simply the cost of doing business with the world’s now second-largest economy. 

This is not acceptable. 

Although China is an important trading partner with the United States, it is imperative to establish a fair and level trading environment.
Driving down intellectual-property theft by China is vital for America’s economic well-being and national security. 

We urge American companies, as well as our allies abroad, who share these interests, to work with the administration through this process.
There is intellectual-property protection on the books in China, and some American companies have been successful bringing cases in Chinese courts. 

The time may come when China applies the same efforts to protecting intellectual property that it now does to stealing it. 

However, for now, the United States and other developed countries must look to their own laws and actions to protect their companies from loss and ruin.
President Trump’s action on Monday is a major step in the right direction. 

If the investigation proves extensive Chinese government support for intellectual-property theft, it could trigger retaliatory action by the American government, based on the Economic Espionage Act, Section 5 of the Federal Trade Commission Act and the National Defense Authorization Act.
The government should lead in this effort, but it can’t go it alone. 

A broad, sustained campaign bringing together the government, the private sector and our allies is the only way to halt this hemorrhaging of America’s economic life blood.