Trade Wars: Some solace for U.S. businesses;’US to exempt Chinese goods in transit from potential tariff increase’ – FT

The Financial Times has reported that a  US trade official said that the higher tariffs on $200bn of Chinese goods would apply to products exported from the Asian nation starting on Friday and not goods that are already in transit.

• “The clarification from the Trump administration on Wednesday offers US and Chinese negotiators a window of two to four extra weeks to reach a deal before the bulk of the pain from the higher tariffs directly hits US consumers and businesses, based on shipping times between the countries.”

This is good news for U.S. businesses that were  fearing a hefty bill on goods in transit and it gives the trade negotiators time to resolve the issues at hand before businesses are contracted into hiked tariffed deals that could otherwise be avoided by arranging other sources of supply.  

“Liu He, China’s vice-premier, is due in Washington on Thursday for talks with US officials in a bid to rescue faltering negotiations to end the trade war between the countries. US officials have accused Chinese officials of “reneging” on their pledges in the talks, triggering fears that they could collapse entirely. China has vowed to retaliate against the US if it moves ahead with the higher tariffs.”