Apple iPhones and other U.S. goods could suffer sales hits in China if President-elect Donald Trump goes through with his "naive" plan of slapping a large import tariff on Chinese products, a state-backed newspaper warned on Sunday.
During his election campaign this year, Trump spoke of a 45% import tariff on all Chinese goods while failing to outline how it would work. Should any such policy come into effect, China will take a "tit-for-tat approach", according to an opinion piece in the Global Times, a newspaper backed by the Communist party.
But the Chinese newspaper was not convinced Trump would go through with his suggestion, calling it "merely campaign rhetoric" and questioning its legal validity. U.S. law dictates that presidents can only impose tariffs of no more than 15% for a maximum of 150 days on all imports.
As an example of earlier tariff-tit-for-tats, the Global Times pointed toward the 35% tariffs imposed in 2009 on Chinese tires. China retaliated with its own tariffs on U.S. car parts and chicken.
The opinion piece said Trump was a "shrewd businessman" and would not be naive, but, if he was serious with the policy, it would affect a number of U.S. industries.
