CNN News:特朗普挑起贸易战 宣布对500亿美元中国进口商品征收关税
Today's down the middle coverage starts with a look new tariffs which are like taxes that the U.S. is placing on certain imports. We've talked about the Trump administration's previous tariffs on steel, aluminum, solar panels and washing machines. The new ones that U.S. President Donald Trump is putting in place are on about $50 billion worth of imported goods from China. The tariffs would be on everything, from electronics to clothes, so it'll be more expensive for China to sell its item to America.
It's a sort of punishment on China for what the U.S. says are unfair trade practices that never should have been allowed by previous American leaders.
President Trump says he thinks of China as a friend, but that the trade deficit that the U.S. has with China, the fact that America imports far more goods from China than it exports to China is unacceptable.
DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: It is the largest deficit of any country in the history of our world. It's out of control.
AZUZ: Some economists are afraid this could start a trade war, when countries increase restrictions on another's products and prices rise. And the U.S. stock market dropped yesterday significantly, partially because some investors were concerned that would happen. The Trump administration says the new tariffs would only have a small effect on Americans but an expert on international trade says Americans will end up having to pay more for every day items, and a Chinese government official says a trade war does no good to anyone, that there is no winner.
The tariffs won't take effect immediately. It will probably be more than a month before they're in place.