US exports fall amid escalating trade war with China
US exports weakened across the board in June amid a global economic slowdown, as President Donald Trump’s trade war with China intensifies, according to government data released Friday.
America’s mammoth trade deficit held steady in June as imports also declined along with foreign demand for US goods and services.
The falling exports and deteriorating trade picture comes as Trump escalated its aggressive tariffs plan against Beijing, threatening to impose new 10 percent duties on $300 billion in Chinese goods on September 1, on top of previous similar measures.
Beijing has pledged to retaliate with “countermeasures.” Economists say the tit-for-tat battle is helping to weaken global growth and international commerce.
The US trade gap dipped a token 0.3 percent to $55.2 billion in June, but exports are falling faster than imports, according to the Commerce Department report.
Despite Trump’s tough tactics, which he says will protect US jobs and reduce the trade gap, the deficit in the first half of 2019 is 7.9 percent higher than in the same period last year -- and could weigh on GDP growth in the second quarter.
The US Federal Reserve this week cut the benchmark lending rate, citing the uncertainty caused by trade policy.
Trump’s new tariffs threat would add to the 25 percent tariffs already levied on $250 billion in imports.
“Until such time as there is a deal, we will be taxing the hell out of China,” Trump said during a campaign rally in Cincinnati on Thursday.
But the deficit with China, Trump’s greatest source of ire, was largely unchanged at $30.2 billion in June, leaving it down 10.3 percent in the first half of 2019.
Beijing already has responded with tariffs on all $110 billion in products imported from US companies, but has previously hinted it could restrict exports of rare earths that are vital to the US technology industry, and it is also drawing up a blacklist of “unreliable” foreign companies.
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