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A4 News | | SUNDAY, MAY 12, 2019 2 R mers; saw blades; almost every kind of lighting fixture that most U.S. stores sell; toilet paper, art supplies, ceramic tiles, windshield glass; wooden shingles; mattress supports; and don’t forget Christmas tree lights. Almost 1,000 other prod- ucts are things you eat or drink. They include vegeta- bles like cabbage, kale, car- rots and beets, along with hundreds of types of fish, though industry lobbying removed some Alaskan- caught fish that are exported to China for processing and then reimported to the Unit- ed States. Associated Press writer Christopher Rugaber contributed to this report. the Peterson Institute for International Economics. Kristin Dziczek, a vice presi- dent at the Center for Auto- motive Research, calculates that the tariffs will raise the cost of U.S.-made cars by $190, most of which will likely be passed on to the consumer. A study by the Trade Part- nership, a consulting firm that works with the NRF, found that the duties will cost the average family of four $767 if they remain in place for at least a year. Among other items that might suddenly get more expensive: outdoor gear, ski gloves, the knit fabric used in fleece vests; dog collars, baseball mitts; sledgeham- from China, according to the U.S. Travel Goods Asso- ciation. Most luggage and backpacks already face 17.6% duties, and the extra tariffs will increase that to 42.6%, the trade group says. Tiffany Williams, who owns The Luggage Shop in Lubbock, Texas, says most of the U.S. importers that she buys from quickly raised their prices 10% after the Trump administration first imposed 10% tariffs in late September. One vendor told her it would raise its prices 25% immediately after Trump tweeted his threat last Sunday to lift tariffs to that level. Williams has had to raise her prices as well, which has lowered sales, particularly for higher-priced brands such as Tumi and Briggs and Riley. Overall sales fell 8% during the winter holidays, she said, and she decided against hiring any seasonal employees, as she has in previous years. Vehicles may cost more. The duties have been im- posed on $9.2 billion of auto part imports, according to 200,000 American jobs that year. More broadly, trade restrictions make an econo- my less efficient. With lesser competition from abroad, domestic compa- nies lose the incentive to increase efficiency or to focus on what they do best. Which products will cost more? Look for higher costs for school backpacks. If plan- ning a home remodel, higher tariffs on granite, marble, steel, lumber and other building materials will make that more expen- sive. The National Associa- tion of Home Builders estimates the duties will cost developers $2.5 billion a year. Furniture, including bedroom and office furni- ture, will get hit, as well as refrigerators and freezers, air conditioners, handbags, baseball gloves, bicycles and luggage. Shrimp, tuna, fish sticks and many other types of seafood will also cost more. About 80% of all luggage sold in the United States is The average U.S. tariff is now one of the lowest in the world: 1.6 percent, the same as the European Union’s, the Pew Research Center reports. Are tariffs a wise policy? Most economists say no. Tariffs raise the cost of im- ports for people and compa- nies that need to buy them. And by reducing competi- tive pressure, they give U.S. producers leeway to raise prices, too. That’s good for those producers but bad for almost everyone else. Rising costs especially hurt consumers and compa- nies that rely on imported parts. Some U.S. companies that buy steel, for example, complain that Trump’s tariffs on imported steel leave them at a competitive disadvantage. Their foreign rivals can buy steel more cheaply and offer lower- priced goods. In 2002, President George W. Bush’s administration placed tariffs on imported steel. A study financed by steel-consuming businesses found that the tariffs cost established in 1913, tariffs were a big money raiser for the federal government. From 1790 to 1860, tariffs produced 90 percent of fed- eral revenue, according to Douglas Irwin, an economist at Dartmouth College. By contrast, tariffs in recent years have accounted for only about 1 percent of fed- eral revenue. Tariffs are meant to raise the price of imports or pun- ish foreign countries for unfair trade practices, like subsidizing their exporters and dumping their goods at unfairly low prices. They discourage imports by mak- ing them costlier. They also reduce pressure from foreign competition and make it easier for homegrown com- panies to raise prices. As global trade grew after WorldWar II, tariffs fell out of favor. The formation of the World Trade Organiza- tion and the forging of trade deals like the North Ameri- can Free Trade Agreement reduced or eliminated tariffs. < Tariffs FROM A3 By KENNETH P. VOGEL The New York Times WASHINGTON—Facing withering attacks accusing himof seeking foreign assis- tance for President Donald Trump’s re-election cam- paign, Rudy Giuliani has canceled a trip to Kiev in which he planned to push the incoming Ukrainian govern- ment to press ahead with investigations he hoped would benefit Trump. Giuliani, Trump’s personal lawyer, explained late Friday that he felt as if he was being “set up” by Ukrainians criti- cal of his efforts, and he blamed Democrats for trying to “spin” the trip. “They say I was meddling in the election— ridiculous —but that’s their spin,” he said. Giuliani said Thursday that he had hoped tomeet in Kiev, the Ukrainian capital, with the nation’s president- elect and urge him to pursue inquiries that could yield new information about two matters of intense interest to Trump. One is the origin of the special counsel’s investi- gation into Russia’s interfer- ence in the 2016 election. The other is the involvement of former Vice President Joe Biden’s son in a gas company owned by a Ukrainian oli- garch. The trip raised the specter into a trap” had the meeting with Zelenskiy occurred. He predicted it would have been misrepresented by advisers of Zelenskiy who have criti- cized the top prosecutor, singling out a member of Ukraine’s Parliament, Serhiy Leshchenko, who has ad- vised the incoming presi- dent. Late last year, an adminis- trative court in Ukraine fault- ed Leshchenko for calling attention in 2016 to docu- ments related to earlier work in Ukraine by Trump’s cam- paign chairman at the time, Paul Manafort. The docu- ments, which were first pub- lished in The New York Times, led to the resignation from the campaign of Manafort, who has since pleaded guilty to charges brought by the special coun- sel related to his work in Ukraine, and who is serving a 7½ -year prison sentence. Giuliani has called for addi- tional inquiry into Leshchen- ko’s scrutiny of Manafort. Leshchenko, who is appeal- ing the Ukrainian administra- tive court’s finding faulting him, said in an interview Saturday that the case against him related to the Manafort documents was politicallymotivated, and not supported by the law. He said he did not advise Zelenskiy to skip themeetingwith Giu- liani. But he also said Giuliani had been “misinformed” by the Ukrainian prosecutor, whomLeshchenko accused of being “corrupt.” Material from The Associated Press is included in this report. matters related to the special counsel’s investigation. Zelenskiy is set to take office June 3. The investigations had been opened by Ukrainian prosecutors during the term of the country’s current presi- dent, Petro Poroshenko. He lost his re-election bid last month to Zelenskiy, who has said he would like to replace the country’s top prosecutor, Yuriy Lutsenko, who over- saw some of the matters. Giuliani and other Trump allies had been working behind the scenes with the prosecutor to gather infor- mation about the investiga- tions. Giuliani said he feared he would have been “walking tion continued.” The change of plans came as advisers were urging the incoming Ukrainian presi- dent, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, a comedian and political new- comer, not tomeet with Giuliani, according to a per- son familiar with the conver- sations. Giuliani had requested the meeting with Zelenskiy through intermediaries, but it had not been confirmed. Giuliani’s foray into Ukrai- nian politics comes at a deli- cate moment for the country, which is deeply reliant on the United States for financial andmilitary aid. The current Ukrainian government has sought to distance itself from and, now, standard proce- dure.” Sen. Chris Murphy, D- Conn., who serves on the Foreign Relations Commit- tee, sent a letter to the pan- el’s Republican chairman asking for an investigation of Giuliani’s activities. Giu- liani’s engagement with the Ukrainians amounted to “private foreign-policy en- gagement,” Murphy wrote, adding, “I amdeeply con- cerned about the implica- tions of this for United States foreign policy.” On Friday night, Giuliani rejected that characteriza- tion, asserting in a brief inter- view, “My only purpose was tomake sure the investiga- of a lawyer for Trump press- ing a foreign government to pursue investigations that his allies hope could help him win re-election. And it comes after Trump has spent more than half his term facing scrutiny about whether his 2016 campaign conspired with Ukraine’s hostile neigh- bor, Russia. Giuliani had planned to leave Sunday. Trump has suggested he would like Attorney General WilliamBarr to look into the material gathered by Ukrai- nian prosecutors. On Friday afternoon, Trump intimated he was considering speaking to Barr about the overlap between Biden’s diplomacy in Ukraine and his son’s involvement with the gas company. “Certainly it would be an appropriate thing to speak to him about, but I have not done that as of yet,” Trump told Politico in an interview. He suggested that he intend- ed to speak to Giuliani about the matter before the planned trip to Kiev. After The New York Times published a report about the trip Thursday, Democrats assailed Giuliani, accusing himof activity evoking that at the center of the recently concluded special counsel’s investigation. “Today, Giuliani admitted to seeking political help from a foreign power. Again,” tweeted Rep. AdamSchiff, D-Calif., chairman of the House Intelligence Commit- tee. He called the plan “immor- al, unethical, unpatriotic Giuliani calls off controversial Kiev trip DEMS ASSAIL PLAN He was to urge officials there to push inquiries that would aid Trump A ND R EW H A R N I K / T H E A S S O C I A T E D P R E S S Rudy Giuliani, President Donald Trump’s lawyer, canceled a trip to Ukraine after critics said it evoked what was at the center of the special counsel’s investigation. NATION&WORLD DONATE YOUR CAR Wheels For Wishes '&!&#$"!% Make-A-Wish ® Alaska and Washington * Car Donation Foundation d/b/a Wheels For Wishes. 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