Former Republican congressman and two-time GOP presidential candidate Ron Paul warns savvy investors that President Donald Trump’s threatened U.S. trade tariffs against China are really just taxes on Americans in disguise.
If the threatened tariffs ever do go into effect, they'll hurt working Americans, Paul told CNBC.
Trump needs to stop "blaming a free market and capitalism" for trade imbalances, says Paul, the former Republican Congressman from Texas.
"If we can't compete then we have to say, 'Why can't we compete?'" the Newsmax Insider said.
The U.S. move last week to threaten China with tariffs on $50 billion in Chinese goods was aimed at forcing Beijing to address what Washington says is deeply entrenched theft of U.S. intellectual property and forced technology transfers from U.S. companies.
Beijing claims that Washington is the aggressor and is spurring global protectionism, though China’s trading partners have complained for years that it abuses World Trade Organization rules and practices unfair industrial policies that lock foreign companies out of crucial sectors with the intent of creating domestic champions.
For his part, Paul explained that trying to rectify decades of "mismanaged" trade with tariffs will only harm the wrong people.
"A tariff can't fix this. A tariff is a tax and the tax is on the people who live in the country who raises it," he said. "People that might be enjoying $25 tennis shoes will have to pay $100. That doesn't help anybody."
For its part, China stepped up its attacks on the Trump administration on Monday over billions of dollars worth of threatened tariffs, saying Washington is to blame for trade frictions and repeating it was impossible to negotiate under “current circumstances.”
China's comments come after U.S. President Donald Trump on Sunday predicted China would take down its trade barriers, and expressed optimism that both sides could resolve the issue through talks.
Chinese state researchers and media talked down the likely impact of U.S. trade measures on the world’s second largest economy and described the Trump administration’s posturing on trade as the product of an “anxiety disorder,” Reuters explained.
“Under the current circumstances, both sides even more cannot have talks on these issues,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Geng Shuang told reporters at a regular news briefing.
“The United States with one hand wields the threat of sanctions, and at the same time says they are willing to talk. I’m not sure who the United States is putting on this act for,” Geng said.
The trade frictions were “entirely at the provocation of the United States,” he added.
Trump returned to Twitter on Monday to further defend his actions.
"When a car is sent to the United States from China, there is a Tariff to be paid of 2 1/2%. When a car is sent to China from the United States, there is a Tariff to be paid of 25%. Does that sound like free or fair trade. No, it sounds like STUPID TRADE - going on for years!" Trump tweeted.
(Newsmax wire services contributed to this report).
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