He’s ready…Xi’s not calling. Yippy Americans get snippy

The TOI correspondent from Washington: The United States is exempting a big selection of electronics together with computer systems, smartphones, onerous drives, semiconductors, chip-making gear from President Trump’s so-called “reciprocal tariffs” in a climbdown geared toward assuaging America shopper fears of worth hikes and help US tech giants like Apple, Microsoft, Google, Dell and others.
The US Customs and Border Protection printed the exclusions on Friday evening amid rising home skepticism about Trump’s tariff gambit that has didn’t deliver China to its knees, and as a substitute elicited a defiant response from Beijing.
China accounts for greater than 70% of worldwide output of shopper electronics in accordance with some business estimates, and the US concession, albeit meant to safeguard nationwide safety and defend its home constituency, can also be seen as retreat in Washington’s tariff standoff with Beijing.
The Trump White House is placing on a courageous face amid intense home stress to point out outcomes from the President’s tariff menace that has roiled world commerce. Broad alerts to China to provoke talks by means of a telephone name from President Xi has been rebuffed by Beijing which feels insulted by a few of the language coming from Washington, together with vice-president JD Vance saying US is having to purchase stuff made by Chinese “peasants.”
Trump’s tariff throwdown is now being trashed by a broad swathe of US consultants with little help for him outdoors the MAGA echo-chamber, the place protection of the President’s gambit rests on hope and belief. “Trust in President Trump. He is aware of what he’s doing. This is a confirmed financial formulation,” White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said at the daily briefing on Friday amid growing doubts about the outcome.
Trump is now being taunted by critics after China made it clear it would not initiate any calls despite the invitation from Washington. “I have a lot of respect for President Xi. In a true sense, he’s been a friend of mine for a long period of time. And I think that we’ll end up working out something that’s very good for both countries. I look forward to it,” the US President said on Friday, but it elicited no reaction from Beijing other than Chinese surrogates asking US to go take a hike.
In a widely distributed clip from an interview, Victor Gao, a Chinese academic close to the Beijing establishment, when asked about China losing access to US market with its intransigent stand, said, “We do not care. China has been right here for five,000 years, more often than not there was no US and we survived. If the US needs to bully China, we are going to take care of the scenario with out the US. And we count on to outlive one other 5,000 years.”
As it turned out, US has had to retreat from tariffing a range of electronic items that China directly or indirectly feeds into the US to keep Americans hooked and happy. There are reports that Americans are buying Christmas gifts even before Easter Sunday (April 20) fearing higher prices for goodies and supply disruption from China, whose “low cost merchandise” consumers feast on.
US tech companies have gradually shifted some of the manufacturing to India and Vietnam in recent years, but China remains the source of most components.
Trump aides have asserted that several countries including India, Vietnam, Japan, and South Korea among some 70+ nations are ready for a tariff-free bilateral deals, but have little to show for the claims so far by way of concrete agreements. Statements from New Delhi by India’s commerce minister and foreign minister that India “will not negotiate at gunpoint” point out residual variations in digital talks between the 2 sides.