Trump tariffs would be bad news for Hong Kong’s biggest exports to US: experts

US President Donald Trump’s threat to slap 10 per cent tariffs on Chinese goods could spell bad news for Hong Kong’s biggest exports to the country, telecoms and technology equipment, experts warned on Wednesday, calling it a lose-lose situation.

The city’s academics and business operators said the knock-on effects of tariffs could mean inflationary pressures for US consumers and hit the Hong Kong government’s already depleted coffers with lower income from profits tax.

“There is no benefit for them, aside from feeling like they’ve done something, it’s performative. It’s policymaking not based on evidence or logic,” said Professor Alejandro Reyes of the University of Hong Kong’s department of politics and public administration.

Trump said on Tuesday the tariffs would take effect on February 1, without revealing any other details, to penalise China because fentanyl was being sent from the country to the United States, causing thousands of deaths annually.

Reyes said the Chinese side would think whether there were negotiations or offerings that could prevent the tariffs, and that it was important for Trump to look like he had wrangled something out of Beijing.

He said the imposition of tariffs was likely to negatively affect Hong Kong businesses as the local economy was closely linked to the mainland’s.

  

​Read More