Trump Readies Sweeping Tariffs and Investment Restrictions on China

 

WASHINGTON — The dust has yet to settle on President Trump’s decision to impose sweeping tariffs on steel and aluminum imports, but the White House is preparing another major trade measure, this time aimed squarely at China.

Mr. Trump and his top trade advisers are readying a raft of actions to penalize China’s theft of American intellectual property, including tariffs on at least $30 billion of annual Chinese imports, people familiar with the discussions said.

The measures, which could be announced as early as next week, may also include investment restrictions, caps on visas for Chinese researchers and challenges to China’s trade practices at the World Trade Organization. Those familiar with the planning cautioned that the timing could be delayed, and that such measures are likely to be introduced in stages.

The rapid pace of White House trade measures is no accident and comes at the president’s request. At a White House meeting last week, Robert Lighthizer, the United States trade representative, presented Mr. Trump with a plan to target $30 billion a year in Chinese imports.

That amount is equal to the cost that Mr. Lighthizer’s office estimates Chinese policies aimed at acquiring American technology impose on American companies annually. In August, Mr. Lighthizer officially began an investigation into those practices, which include digital warfare as well as requiring companies to hand over trade secrets and form joint ventures with Chinese partners to gain access to certain markets.

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Mr. Trump — surrounded by his commerce secretary, Wilbur Ross, his trade adviser Peter Navarro and others — asked for a figure beyond $30 billion and for the plan to be officially announced in the coming weeks, according to two people familiar with the exchange.

The administration is devising the measure to broadly counter a Chinese strategy known as the Made in China 2025 plan. China introduced a comprehensive initiative in 2015 to upgrade Chinese industry over the next decade and dominate sectors of the future, including advanced information technology, new energy vehicles and aerospace equipment.

Unlike the steel and aluminum measure, which divided the president’s advisers and his own party, the idea of targeting China has broad support among a number of officials who believe China is cheating in global trade.

Gary D. Cohn, a top economic adviser who resigned over the steel and aluminum tariffs, had approved of action against China, the people familiar with the discussions said. Orrin G. Hatch, the chairman of the powerful Senate Finance Committee, and Senator Marco Rubio of Florida, Republicans who criticized those tariffs, have also endorsed a tough approach toward China.

Congress is also weighing legislation that would strengthen national security checks on Chinese investment. In a House hearing on Thursday, Heath P. Tarbert, an assistant secretary of the Treasury Department, said the current system for assessing investment is riddled with loopholes that allowed Chinese companies to evade such checks.

Concern over China’s practices picked up speed at the end of the Obama administration and has only increased since. Last year, a technology-focused unit in the Defense Department issued a report arguing that rising Chinese investment in Silicon Valley was giving China unprecedented access to the military technologies of the future, and increasing Chinese ownership of supply chains that service the United States military.