The 818 items on the first round of tariffs for Chinese imports may drive up prices on products popular with American millennials as soon as this week, the Financial Times reports.
Why it matters: Much of the focus on the 25% tax on Chinese imports — and subsequent retaliatory tariffs — was its burden on the U.S. manufacturing and agriculture industries, but products popular with younger generations like vaporizers, electric scooters, and smart home products are caught up in the crossfire, too.
Look for global stock markets to crater and economies to dive into recession if President Trump proceeds with his desire to withdraw from another international accord — this time the World Trade Organization, economic experts tell me.
The big picture: Thus far, Trump has mostly damaged U.S. prestige with his anti-globalization actions, including withdrawing from the Trans-Pacific Partnership and the Paris climate agreement, as well as threatening to pull out of NAFTA. He's also caused global stock markets to gyrate by imposing tariffs on Canada, Europe, and China; and oil prices to rise by pulling out of the Iran nuclear deal. But "the financial shock would be very, very large" should he withdraw from the WTO, said Gary Hufbauer of the Peterson Institute for International Economics.
U.S. workers are quitting their jobs again, a sign of confidence in the economy and a very good reason to feel optimistic on Independence Day.
The big picture: 2018 is the first year on record that the U.S. has more available jobs than people looking for jobs. And at the same time, "workers are choosing to leave their jobs at the fastest rate since the internet boom 17 years ago," the WSJ's David Harrison and Eric Morath report.
With President Trump initiating a trade war with Canada and launching verbal attacks on Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, Canadian citizens are boycotting U.S. products and trips to the States, reports CTV News.
What they're doing: Canadians have taken to social media with the hashtags #BuyCanadian, #BoycottUSProducts, and #BoycottUSA and are offering tips on how to do their part to defend their country against the Trump administration's actions. The United States exported $207 billion worth of goods to Canada in 2016, per an MIT visualization.
Over 40 members of the World Trade Organization — including all 28 European Union nations, Russia, China, Japan and India — approached the international body about potential Trump administration tariffs against foreign automobiles, according to Reuters.
The backdrop: The U.S. launched a Section 232 national security probe into foreign car imports in May. That's the same law President Trump used to impose sweeping steel and aluminum tariffs on U.S. trading partners, and WTO members warned that similar action against foreign autos "could seriously disrupt the world market and threaten the WTO system, given the importance of cars to world trade," per Reuters.
With both China and Europe facing hefty tariffs from the United States, China is looking to the European Union to join it in putting out a joint statement against the United States ahead of the Sino-European summit in Beijing in mid-July, reports Reuters.
The big picture: So far, the European Union has rejected the idea of uniting with China against Washington on trade. The EU, which is the world's largest trading bloc, still has hope for a multilateral trading system with China and is hoping to set up a work group to modernize the WTO.
President Trump on Tuesday escalated his war of words with U.S. motorcycle maker Harley-Davidson, which recently announced plans to move some manufacturing overseas because of tariffs.
The bottom line: Trump is claiming 2017 sales were affected by a corporate decision that didn't occur until 2018. That doesn't make sense.
Chinese firms are gearing up cancel U.S. soybean shipments ahead of July 6th, when China's retaliatory tariffs against American goods go into effect, reports Bloomberg.
The big picture: Chinese companies were expected to buy about 1.14 million tons of American soybeans by the end of August, and most of those orders are expected to be canceled, per Bloomberg. The crop has emerged as an unlikely political ground zero in the U.S.-China trade war as Beijing tries to target Trump's farm voter base with its retaliation.
