About $200 billion worth of goods imported to the United States from China will be subject to a 10 percent tariff, effective September 24. The president asked US Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer to study what products to tax in August, and asked him to consider tariffs ranging between 10 and 25 percent. The tariff will scale up to 25 percent by the end of the year.
Beijing will "have to take necessary counter-measures," a spokesman for the Chinese Foreign Ministry told reporters ahead of the announcement Monday.
Items that won’t be included in the tariff package, as Trump previously threatened, are products made by Apple, according to reports. The newest tariffs will exclude a host of consumer electronics such as the Apple products, Fitbit wearables and Sonos speakers, Bloomberg reported Monday afternoon, citing two anonymous sources. On September 8, Trump had warned, "Apple prices may increase because of the massive Tariffs we may be imposing on China – but there is an easy solution where there would be ZERO tax, and indeed a tax incentive. Make your products in the United States instead of China."
"It will be a lot of money coming into the coffers of the United States of America," he said. Critics maintain that tariffs are essentially tax hikes on Americans, since they drive up the price of consumer goods in America.
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 17, 2018
