If President Trump’s proposed tariffs on steel and aluminium go into effect, Europe could drag blue jeans and breakfast beverages into the ring, according to Joseph Sternberg, the Wall Street Journal’s Editorial Page Editor for Europe.
“The EU is going to focus on trying to find ways that they can retaliate without damaging the EU economy itself,” explained Sternberg.
Early on Wednesday, the European Union released a list of American goods that it could tax, including Levi’s jeans, orange juice, and motorboats.
“That list is worth about $3.5 billion each year,” Sternberg said. “The point here is to try to send this message that the U.S. isn’t the only trading country in town here.”
More broadly, the tariffs could also decrease foreign investment into the U.S., said Sternberg.
It could start “affecting the willingness of European companies to invest in the U.S. and those companies are creating a lot of American jobs too.”
For the full interview, [click here](https://cheddar.com/videos/starting-a-tariff-war).
President Donald Trump said he has decided to lower his combined tariff rates on imports of Chinese goods to 47% after talks with Chinese leader Xi Jinping on curbing fentanyl trafficking.
The Federal Reserve cut its key interest rate Wednesday for a second time this year as it seeks to shore up economic growth and hiring even as inflation stays elevated. The move comes amid a fraught time for the central bank, with hiring sluggish and yet inflation stuck above the Fed’s 2% target. Compounding its challenges, the central bank is navigating without much of the economic data it typically relies on from the government. The Fed has signaled it may reduce its key rate again in December but the data drought raises the uncertainty around its next moves. Fed Chair Jerome Powell told reporters that there were “strongly differing views” at the central bank's policy meeting about to proceed going forward.
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The White House budget office says mass firings of federal workers have started in an attempt to exert more pressure on Democratic lawmakers as the government shutdown continues.
President Donald Trump says “there seems to be no reason” to meet with Chinese leader Xi Jinping as part of an upcoming trip to South Korea after China restricted exports of rare earths needed for American industry. The Republican president suggested Friday he was looking at a “massive increase” of import taxes on Chinese products in response to Xi’s moves. Trump says one of the policies the U.S. is calculating is "a massive increase of Tariffs on Chinese products coming into the United States." A monthslong calm on Wall Street was shattered, with U.S. stocks falling on the news. The Chinese Embassy in Washington hasn't responded to an Associated Press request for comment.
