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Here Are the Numbers on What Trump's Tariff Threat Will Affect

Additional duties on over $30 billion in circuit boards and telecommunications devices could be charged from this week.

Here Are the Numbers on What Trump's Tariff Threat Will Affect
Shipping containers sit at Kwai Tsing Container Port Terminals in Hong Kong, China. (Photographer: Lam Yik Fei/ Bloomberg)

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President Donald Trump’s latest threat to raise tariffs on Chinese goods puts vital intermediate equipment and everyday consumer goods used by millions of Americans back into the cross-hairs.

Additional duties of 25 percent on over $30 billion in circuit boards and telecommunications devices could be charged from this week, as part of higher charges on a batch of $200 billion in imports. If Trump carries out his threat to extend the 25 percent charge to all imports, that will start hitting categories like the $45 billion in cellphones imported in 2018.

Tariffs on the first $200 billion, which initially went into effect last September, will rise to 25 percent from 10 percent at 12:01 a.m. this Friday, U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer confirmed Monday. Here’s the breakdown on the top 10 items by value of those products according to 2018 data:

Here Are the Numbers on What Trump's Tariff Threat Will Affect

More Tariffs

In addition to that hike, Trump tweeted his intention to put a 25 percent tariff on all remaining imports from China not already subject to retaliatory measures. That would include many consumer goods, including cellphones, laptops and toys.

Here Are the Numbers on What Trump's Tariff Threat Will Affect

Those new tariffs will come into force "shortly," Trump said.

Value Mismatch

In 2018, the traded value of the items on the $200 billion tariff list ballooned to more than $206 billion from just $188 billion in 2017, exceeding the intended amount as exporters sought to front-load purchases ahead of the implementation of last year’s tariffs.

This mismatch between what the tariff lists intend to target and actual trade flows can be found in previous lists as well as in Trump’s tweets.

The potential pool of Chinese products that could still hit with fresh duties is less than $300 billion, well below the $325 billion figure that Trump threatened in his tweet.

Here Are the Numbers on What Trump's Tariff Threat Will Affect

To contact the reporter on this story: Natalie Lung in Hong Kong at flung6@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Jeffrey Black at jblack25@bloomberg.net, James Mayger

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