Senior Trump administration officials
- Trump has directed US Treasury's Lighthizer to consider increasing the tariff rate on $200 billion of Chinese goods to 25 pct from 10 pct
- Officials say public comment period on potential new tariff rate extended until September 5
- Say communication with China remains open to try to resolve trade differences
- Say Trump remains open to further "conversations" with China
- Say US officials are in contact with Chinese counterparts to determine whether conditions are right to hold negotiations
- Officials, asked about weakening of Chinese yuan, say it is important that countries do not devalue their currencies for trade advantage
- Officials say possible tariff rate increase is not due to any specific action by China
- Officials say US possible tariff rate increase part of efforts to consider different options to "encourage" China to change behavior
Headlines via Reuters
Does this add anything much to our understanding of the issue? At the margin it does but there is nothing blockbuster here. News broke during Asia yesterday on the 25% proposal (US said to plan higher tariff on USD 200bln of imports from China)this does not add a huge amount.
I am just slcing and dicing the yuan comment …. it'll prompt a bit of short covering in the CNH, kneejerk at the very least. Will it halt the yuan devaluation trend, I say no way. No way.
