Trump: American Companies are 'Hereby Ordered' To Look For Alternatives to China
President took a more serious tone with Chinese leader Xi Jinping
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President Donald Trump said Friday that companies in the US are “hereby ordered” to start looking for alternatives to China amid the escalating trade war.
The president responded to China's announcement it was hiking tariffs on U.S. goods.
The announcement has reportedly taken the White House by surprise, according to a person familiar with the matter.
Trump took a more serious tone with Chinese leader Xi Jinping in a tweet, asking “who is our bigger enemy, Jay Powell or Chairman Xi?”
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Trump also admitted that China had not lived up to promises to stop fentanyl shipments to the U.S.
As a result, he said he was ordering FedEx, Amazon, UPS, and the U.S. Post Office search for and destroy any fentanyl in shipments from China.
The legal basis for Trump’s orders was not yet clear.
The president said he said he would make an official announcement about trade with China Friday afternoon.
The “order” may be a warning to U.S. companies that tariffs are going to increase, making manufacturing in China for U.S. markets prohibitively expensive.
....better off without them. The vast amounts of money made and stolen by China from the United States, year after year, for decades, will and must STOP. Our great American companies are hereby ordered to immediately start looking for an alternative to China, including bringing..
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 23, 2019
....all deliveries of Fentanyl from China (or anywhere else!). Fentanyl kills 100,000 Americans a year. President Xi said this would stop - it didn’t. Our Economy, because of our gains in the last 2 1/2 years, is MUCH larger than that of China. We will keep it that way!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 23, 2019
....My only question is, who is our bigger enemy, Jay Powell or Chairman Xi?
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 23, 2019
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The escalating trade conflict began more than a year ago when the U.S. accused Beijing of stealing or pressuring American companies to hand over their technology to their competitors, among other grievances.
In May, Trump said Chinese President Xi Jinping had sent him “a very beautiful letter” and that he would probably speak with him on the phone.
Trump has routinely accused China of taking advantage of American trade policies but said a trade pact could be imminent.
Fed officials signaled they might cut rates if trade tensions worsen, which they have.
China imports far less from the U.S than the U.S. does from China.
This means China’s ability to damage the US is limited, at least through tariffs.
