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Tuesday, May 05, 2020

Trump Administration "Turbocharging" Efforts To Grapple Global Supply Chains From China

President Trump's trade war is back. It's an election year, and the efforts by the administration to 'turbocharge' an initiative todeglobalize that world by removing critical supply chains from China could be seen with new rounds of tariffs to strike Beijing for its handling of the COVID-19 outbreak, US officials told Reuters.

It's clear that coronavirus lockdowns have resulted in a crashed economy with more than 30 million people unemployed have derailed President Trump's normal campaigning process and the promises of a vibrant economy. This could suggest President Trump is about to unleash tariff hell on Beijing as it would do two things: First, it would pressure US companies with supply chains in China to exit, and second, the president can say the tariffs are a punishment for the more than 68,000 Americans that have died from the virus.

"We've been working on [reducing the reliance of our supply chains in China] over the last few years but we are now turbocharging that initiative," Keith Krach, undersecretary for Economic Growth, Energy and the Environment at the U.S. State Department told Reuters.

"I think it is essential to understand where the critical areas are and where critical bottlenecks exist," Krach said, adding that the matter was key to U.S. security and one the government could announce new action on soon.

Current and former officials said the Commerce Department and other federal agencies are investigating ways to push US companies away from sourcing and manufacturing in China. "Tax incentives and potential re-shoring subsidies are among measures being considered to spur changes," they said.

"There is a whole of government push on this," said one. Agencies are prob

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