Trump says no exceptions in tariff war with China

Donald Trump and China have been having a heavyweight battle regarding tariffs, and neither country is backing down right now.

Trump threw the latest uppercut this week, when he announced there would be no exceptions, which now has people worried about the cost of smartphones, among other products.

Fight to the end

When Donald Trump made his first announcement about tariffs, China said it “resolutely opposes” the tariffs and will “fight to the end” of this war with Trump.

The country stated, “The U.S. threat to escalate tariffs on China is a mistake on top of a mistake."

“China will never accept it. If the U.S. insists on its own way, China will fight to the end.”

Tianchen Xu, senior economist at the Economist Intelligence Unit, observed, “Since China already faces more than 60% in tariff rate, it doesn’t really matter if it goes up by 50% or 500%. China is on the defensive side, but basically the two sides are testing each other’s limit.”

Trump fires back

Trump was pretty clear that if China hit him back, he would hit back again, and that is what he did.

Trump announced that he was raising Chinese tariffs to 125%.

Some of the top imports from China are mobile phones, computers and accessories, sporting goods, games, toys, and electrical and industrial equipment.

Many thought that Trump may exclude some products to help soften the blow for American consumers, and Trump just answered that request.

Not happening

Trump wants China to buckle, and the way to do that is to keep the pressure on and just get the American consumer to do without until this trade war is over. We all need to buckle our belts a little tighter if this is going work.

To that point, when Trump was asked about exceptions, he responded, “NOBODY is getting ‘off the hook.' There was no Tariff ‘exception’ announced on Friday. These products are subject to the existing 20% Fentanyl Tariffs, and they are just moving to a different Tariff ‘bucket.’"

“We are taking a look at Semiconductors and the WHOLE ELECTRONICS SUPPLY CHAIN in the upcoming National Security Tariff Investigations.”

If you don’t want to pay the higher prices, don’t buy the products. It really is that simple. I can tell you flat out I have just stopped buying anything but necessities right now, and I have no plans on doing anything different until this issue is settled. I would recommend everyone reading this do the same.