(Source: "China National Times" 2025-3-28)

After Trump came to power again, he still adopted economic nationalist policies and w88 protectionist measures, and his main target was once again targeting China. On February 1, 2025, Trump signed an executive order to impose an additional 10% tariff on all Chinese goods exported to the United States starting from February 4. On February 27, Trump announced that he would impose an additional 10% tariff on goods imported from China starting from March 4. The U.S.'s imposition of additional tariffs not only violates multilateral w88 rules of free w88 and fair competition, but its use of tariffs as a negotiating weapon will eventually backfire on itself.

The additional tariffs imposed by the United States on China have seriously harmed the welfare of American consumers

First of all, most of the tariffs imposed by the United States will ultimately be borne by American consumers. As an indirect tax, tariffs are ostensibly borne by producers, but are actually partially passed on to final consumers through commodity prices and market demand. The proportion of the burden on producers and consumers depends on the price elasticity of demand for the commodity. The price elasticity of demand for clothing, shoes, hats, and electronic products imported by the United States from China is low. The price increase caused by tariffs will be borne more by American consumers, which means that they need to pay higher prices to purchase Chinese goods, thus harming welfare.

Secondly, the increased tariffs imposed by the United States have intensified the trend of inferior products driving out good products in the consumer goods market. High quality and low price are the advantages of Chinese products. As the U.S. imposes additional tariffs, both imported retailers and consumers have to settle for products from other countries with lower prices and lower quality. This has narrowed the range of products consumers can choose from, creating a trend of inferior products driving out good products in the consumer goods market, ultimately reducing product quality in the entire consumer goods market and harming the long-term welfare of American consumers.

Finally, the U.S.’s increased tariffs reduce consumers’ willingness to spend. The additional tariffs imposed by the United States on China have caused the price of goods imported from China to rise, further causing the overall price of U.S. imported products to increase. The prices of similar domestic products will inevitably rise accordingly, resulting in a higher level of inflation. Affected by the negative impact of the decline in real purchasing power and rising prices, consumers may reduce consumption expenditures and increase savings, thus reducing the welfare enhancement brought about by diversified consumption.

The additional tariffs imposed by the United States on China directly threaten the survival and development of American enterprises

First of all, the tariffs imposed by the United States have increased the cost of raw materials for companies. U.S. companies import a large amount of intermediate products from China, such as steel and aluminum products. The imposition of additional tariffs directly increases the price of intermediate factors used in the production of domestic enterprises in the United States, raising production costs while weakening product profit margins and competitiveness. Accordingly, in order to maintain market share, companies may choose to lower prices, triggering successive price cuts for similar products, forming vicious competition, which will eventually lead to homogeneous companies in the industry losing money or even quitting operations.

Secondly, the U.S.’s increased tariffs force companies to start new outsourced production processes. Under pressure from rising production costs, U.S. companies may shift global outsourcing production processes to low-cost countries such as Vietnam. This is not only detrimental to the expansion of local employment in the United States, but also further promotes the hollowing out of the manufacturing industry. In addition, the additional costs incurred in the establishment, coordination and operation of new factories will eventually increase product prices and weaken the market competitiveness of products.

Once again, the increased tariffs imposed by the United States have delayed corporate research and development and inhibited corporate investment. Affected by falling profit margins and rising inventory holding costs and logistics costs, companies have tight cash flow and can only reduce the scale of new product R&D investment and slow down market development progress, which will have a long-term negative impact on the company's global competitiveness. In addition, the uncertainty of tariff policies makes it difficult for companies to accurately predict future market conditions and cost changes, and to formulate long-term development strategies and investment layout plans, ultimately forming a vicious cycle in which industrial development lags behind and requires even more protection from tariff measures.

Finally, the United States has imposed additional tariffs to increase corporate compliance costs. Due to differences in content, intensity, targets, and time, the United States' frequent and differentiated tariff increases have significantly increased corporate compliance costs, causing companies to struggle to cope with frequently adjusted domestic policies. In particular, it has a greater impact on some companies with diversified products, sales targets and international market distribution structures.

The additional tariffs imposed by the United States on China have strongly impacted the stability of the U.S. domestic market

In response to the repeated fluctuations and adjustments of tariff policies, all related domestic markets in the United States need time to adapt and pay high adaptation costs. This uncertainty hinders business planning, disrupts international w88, and has a negative impact on U.S. domestic economic stability.

First of all, uncertainty about U.S. w88 policy disrupts financial market stability. As the British "Economist" magazine put forward, the Trump administration's erratic policies are damaging the reputation of U.S. assets, leading to reduced confidence and increased confusion among producers and consumers. First, it worsens market expectations. Affected by the Trump administration’s repeated adjustments to tariff policies on China, Canada, Mexico and other countries, it is difficult for financial market participants to form stable expectations, making investors worried about future policy directions and market environment, thus causing a deterioration of the market environment in terms of the mechanism of economic self-fulfilling expectations. The second is to intensify asset price fluctuations. The U.S.'s imposition of additional tariffs will intensify global investors' concerns about the escalation of w88 disputes and slowing economic growth, prompting investors to frequently adjust their investment portfolios to avoid the risk of w88 policy uncertainty, thereby triggering sharp fluctuations in asset prices and increasing financial market risks.

Secondly, the imposition of additional tariffs has further made it more difficult for the United States to coordinate its own policies. In addition to China, the United States has also implemented a large number of differentiated tariff measures on different countries, different industries, and different products. The effects of these measures are overlapping under the transmission of market mechanisms, adding to or weakening each other, resulting in confusion in the adaptability of policies and greatly increasing the cost of policy coordination for the U.S. government.

Finally, the additional tariffs imposed by the United States have worsened overall economic expectations. The Trump administration's unilateralist approach has severely impacted the stability and authority of the multilateral trading system, causing investors, businesses and consumers to lack confidence in future economic development. They have become more anxious about other countries' retaliatory tariff measures and have become pessimistic about the future growth expectations of the U.S. economy. This widespread pessimism will further inhibit economic activities and reduce consumption and investment willingness, thus forming a vicious cycle of further economic decline.

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