Xi Has a Plan to Ease Tariff Pain. What About Trump?: Shuli Ren

Xi Jinping is standing up to Donald Trump. Throwing away past restraints, China’s tit-for-tat response to the 34% tariff the US imposed on April 2 is unnerving global investors. What prompted Xi’s change of tactic? Is a grand bargain between the two presidents off-the-table?

Make no mistake: Both countries will suffer from Trump’s punitive measures. Exports have been a rare bright spot in China. US tariffs announced this year, which bring the total effective rate on Chinese goods to 58%, could drag economic growth down by 1.7 percentage points, according to Goldman Sachs Group Inc. estimates. The actual impact is probably larger. Since ...