President Trump on Thursday signed a memo calling for tariffs on a range of Chinese goods and investment restrictions on Chinese companies in the U.S., a move that gives his administration just a few weeks to decide on a specific menu of trade restrictions.
Trump said the memo is a way to help reduce America’s large trade deficit with China and fight back against China intellectual property rights violations, and said the trade restrictions are aimed at leveling what he called an unfair playing field.
According to the memo, however, the restrictions are not in place yet, and still need to be developed.
On the trade side, Trump is looking to impose a 25 percent tariff on a range of goods in sectors like aerospace, information communication technology, and machinery. The next step here is for his trade representative, Robert Lighthizer, to propose which goods should face a tariff.
Specifically, the memo calls on Lighthizer to publish a proposed list of Chinese goods within 15 days. Once proposed, the memo calls for a comment period, which under the law must be at least 30 days. Many of those comments are likely to come from U.S. industries arguing against the imposition of tariffs that would increase their costs.
The memo then asks Lighhizer to “publish a final list of products and tariff increases, if any, and implement any such tariffs.”
On the investment side, the memo asked Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin to propose steps to limit Chinese investment. It said those measures should “address concerns about investment in the United States “directed or facilitated by China in industries or technologies deemed important to the United States.”
Mnuchin has 60 days from the date of Trump’s memo to “report to me his progress.”
The memo also calls on Lighthizer to pursue a World Trade Organization dispute settlement case against China. Trump authorized all these steps under Section 301 of U.S. trade law, which in recent years has been used to launch WTO cases rather than retaliatory steps against U.S. trading partners.
