China Retaliates Against The U.S. With Even More Tariffs, Prompting The Stock Market To Plummet

The day after the United States outlined what specific Chinese imports would be counted among the previously announced $50 billion in new tariffs, China retaliated with a similar list of new duties for American products like soybeans, airplanes, and cars. According to Reuters, the rapidness with which China’s government responded to the White House’s Tuesday announcement with its own new list of tariffs caused the U.S. Stock Market to plummet as soon as it opened for business Wednesday morning.

Despite these latest developments, however, President Trump took to Twitter to denounce the trade war and China’s response. After beginning the day’s “executive time” with yet another tweet about the U.S.-Mexico border, Trump declared, “We are not in a trade war with China”:

“[T]hat war was lost many years ago by the foolish, or incompetent, people who represented the U.S. Now we have a Trade Deficit of $500 Billion a year, with Intellectual Property Theft of another $300 Billion. We cannot let this continue!”

The president also protested, “When you’re already $500 Billion DOWN, you can’t lose!” — a reference to what Trump believes the country’s trade and goods deficit with China was in 2017. As The Guardian was quick to point out, however, his “nice round number” is quite false, as the actual number is more like $375.2 billion.

As for Wednesday’s stock market opening, the Dow Jones industrial average fell by 480 points soon after the opening bell, thereby wiping two percent off the benchmark index. The S&P and Nasdaq indexes were also down by 38 and 120 points respectively, but never fear! There’s absolutely no trade war happening right now between China and the U.S.

(Via Reuters and The Guardian)