August 26, 2019 – The Trump Administration announced over the weekend the plan to increase duties on approximately $550 billion worth of Chinese imports by 5%. This is the result of the Chinese Ministry of Finance’s retaliation to the upcoming duties for “List 4A” and “List 4B”. According to the United States Trade Representative (USTR), the increase of 5% for List 1, List 2 and List 3 result in the tariff of 30%. This will go into effect on October 1. For “List 4A” and “List 4B”, the 5% increase will result in a tariff of 15% beginning on the planned release dates of September 1 (List 4A) and December 15 (List 4B).
Additionally, President Trump tweeted: “Our great American companies are hereby ordered to immediately start looking for an alternative to China, including bringing your companies HOME and making your products in the USA.”