President Trump announced ~$50 billion in annual tariffs on Chinese goods following through on a threat that he says will punish the country for intellectual property theft and create more American jobs. The president directed U.S. Trade Representative Robert E. Lighthizer to announce within 15 days a proposed list of products to be hit with tariff increases. After a public comment period, the final tariff list, designed to target Chinese products that benefited from improper access to U.S. technology, will be made public and will take effect 60 days after the public comment period ends. Trump also gave Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin 60 days to develop a parallel measure placing investment restrictions on the ability of Chinese companies "to invest in certain sectors of the U.S. economy where it has sought to obtain U.S. technology," according to a White House official.
To help investors wade through all the noise, we hosted a conference call with Charles Freeman, the former Assistant U.S. Trade Representative for China and one of Washington's top China policy analysts to discuss the impact of Trump's newest tariff proposal. We covered a lot of ground with Freeman in just under 30 minutes - including timeline and prospects for negotiations, the scope of targeted goods and products and potential retaliatory action from China - to name a few.
TO LISTEN TO THE REPLAY CLICK HERE
Charles Freeman was the Assistant U.S. Trade Representative for China, a role in which he was the principal U.S. trade negotiator with China and recently joined the U.S. Chamber as Senior Vice President for Asia from the Bower Group Asia, where he was Managing Director for China. Charles was the Senior Advisor for Economic and Trade affairs at the Center for Strategic and International Studies and has been helping companies navigate complex Asia-Pacific markets for 25 years, including service in government and experience in business, law, and academia prior to his consulting work. He also served as PepsiCo’s Vice President for Global Public Policy and Government Affairs. Freeman earned his J.D. from Boston University’s School of Law and bachelor’s degree in Asian studies from Tufts University. He did post-graduate work at Fudan University in Shanghai and studied Mandarin Chinese at the Taipei Language Institute.
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