Delays and higher consumer prices incoming from US trade conflict with China: CEI analysis

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President Trump’s ten percent tariffs on Chinese goods have been met with retaliatory tariffs by Beijing, indicating a trade war has begun. CEI’s senior economist Ryan Young says these tariffs won’t get Trump what he wants and will only hurt consumers.
“This marks the fifth time in a row that Beijing has retaliated to tariffs, rather than make needed reforms. The first four times happened during Trump’s first term and also got zero results. At some point, President Trump needs to figure out that tariffs will not get him what he wants from China.
“This fifth round could be especially harmful. By getting rid of the de minimis exemption for low-value packages, Trump is also saddling Customs and Border Protection with inspecting a billion packages per year. CBP has neither the resources nor the staff to do this on essentially zero notice.
“Frustrating delays and higher consumer prices are only the beginnings of the problems from this failed negotiating tactic.
“Republican or Democrat, everyone agrees that China’s government is a bad actor on both trade and on human rights and needs to make reforms. The tariff approach fails every time. It is time to try something else.
“Taxing power belongs to Congress, not the president. Congress needs to step up and reclaim tariff-making powers it should never have delegated away in the first place.”