Donald Trump’s Grant Economic plan IS disintergrading piece by piece…
Backing down on Carmaker tariff’s/import taxes….
President Trump signed a pair of executive orders on Tuesday that walked back some tariffs for carmakers, removing levies that Ford, General Motors and others have complained would backfire on U.S. manufacturing by raising the cost of production and squeezing their profits.
The changes will modify Mr. Trump’s tariffs so carmakers that pay a 25 percent tariff on auto imports are not subject to other levies, for example on steel and aluminum, or on certain imports from Canada and Mexico, according to the orders. However, the rules do not appear to protect automakers from tariffs on steel and aluminum that their suppliers pay and pass on.
Carmakers will also be able to qualify for tariff relief for a proportion of the cost of their imported components, though those benefits will be phased out over the next two years.
At a rally in Michigan on Tuesday night, Mr. Trump said that he was showing “a little flexibility” to the automakers but that he wanted them to make their components in the United States….
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Christmas Sales worries….
President Trump’s China tariffs are threatening Christmas.
Toy makers, children’s shops and specialty retailers are pausing orders for the winter holidays as the import taxes cascade through supply chains. Factories in China produce nearly 80 percent of all toys and 90 percent of Christmas goods sold in America.
The production of toys, Christmas trees and decorations is usually in full swing by now. It takes four to five months to manufacture, package and ship products to the United States.
Mr. Trump’s 145 percent tariffs have caused a drastic markup in costs for American companies. Most of the entrepreneurs that have shared their plans with The New York Times have not yet canceled their orders. They hope that the president will back away from the tariff brinkmanship.
But the alarm in the industry is palpable, with the companies predicting product shortages and higher prices. Some business owners, citing how crucial holiday sales are to their bottom lines, are consulting bankruptcy lawyers.
“We have a frozen supply chain that is putting Christmas at risk,” said Greg Ahearn, chief executive of the Toy Association, a U.S. industry group representing 850 toy manufacturers. “If we don’t start production soon, there’s a high probability of a toy shortage this holiday season.”….
Overall China imports stalled….
U.S. retailers and manufacturers, faced with sky-high tariffs on Chinese goods, are pausing and reducing shipments from China. The pullback is expected to hit West Coast ports within days.
The number of containers scheduled to arrive at the Port of Los Angeles is anticipated to drop more than 35 percent next week compared with the same period last year, data from the port shows. And a quarter of the ships that had been scheduled for May have canceled because of light volume, said Gene Seroka, the port’s executive director.
Mr. Seroka attributed the expected downturn to President Trump’s tariffs — most notably, tariffs on Chinese goods, many of which will be subjected to levies of up to 145 percent.
The Port of Los Angeles, which handles the largest volume of container shipments from China, reported a surge of imports in recent months as companies tried to get ahead of the tariffs Mr. Trump had long promised. This month, as Mr. Trump’s trade war with China escalated and retailers’ fears about broad tariffs came to fruition, large importers started to scale back their shipments, Mr. Seroka said….
Trump thinks China will “Eat” his import taxes on items?
President Trump said in an interview broadcasting late Tuesday that China “will probably eat those tariffs” when talking about the 145 percent overall tariff on its products.
The president got into a heated back-and-forth with ABC’s Terry Moran when talking about the import tax, with Moran arguing the tariff is going to “raise prices on everything from electronics, to clothing, to building houses.”
“You don’t know that, you don’t know whether or not China’s going to eat it,” Trump cut in at the end of Moran’s statement.
“That’s mathematics,” Moran said, also cutting in at the end of Trump’s response….
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Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent was asked by reporters at the White House on Monday about trade talks with China. He did not detail the type of talks, if any, Trump’s administration was participating in alongside China but said that the tariffs would cause pain for Beijing instead of the U.S….
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China says there have been NO Trade talks with Trump & Co.
China on Monday once again denied that it is in talks to resolve its tariff war with the U.S., after a series of statements by President Donald Trump and his aides suggesting trade negotiations were underway.
“Let me make it clear one more time that China and the U.S. are not engaged in any consultation or negotiation on tariffs,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Guo Jiakun said at a press conference.
Guo also appeared to reject Trump’s claim, in an interview with Time last week, that Chinese President Xi Jinping had called him.
“As far as I know, there have not been any calls between the two presidents recently,” the spokesman said.
The latest blanket denial was in line with Beijing’s hardline stance against Trump’s massive 145% tariffs on imports from China, a top supplier of U.S. goods.
Trump administration officials, including Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, insist that the U.S. is better positioned to win a trade war than China is.
But American business owners and analysts are raising alarms that the effective trade embargo with China could soon result in major economic consequences, including higher prices, product shortages and store closures….
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