Rupert Murdoch-owned the Wall Street Journal ridiculed President Donald Trump’s half-baked trade “deal” with China, calling it a “truce that tilts in China’s direction” after months of wavering back and forth.
The Journalnoted that the much-touted agreement brings trade relations back to the baseline before Trump started his tariff war. After ratcheting up tariffs on China incrementally in February and March, Trump imposed sky-high tariffs of 145 percent in May. He quickly walked them back after China said it would impose a retaliatory tariff of 125 percent; Trump lowered the tariffs to 30 percent, China to 10. The new tariff deal Trump touted Wednesday brings the number to 55 percent—the same rate they were during Trump’s first term.
“This gets to the larger problem with Mr. Trump’s tariff strategy—that is, he doesn’t have one. His latest walk-back shows he can’t bully China as he tried to do in his first term. China has leverage of its own,” the board wrote. “A smarter trade strategy would be to work with allies as a united front to counter China’s predatory trade practices.”
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