Beijing on Tuesday imposed tariffs on some U.S. imports in response to new duties imposed by Washington on Chinese goods, rekindling a trade war between the world's two largest economies, even as President Donald Trump decided to suspend tariffs on Mexico and Canada.
An additional 10 percent tariff on all Chinese imports into the United States went into effect Tuesday at 12 p.m. Eastern time. Trump has repeatedly warned Beijing that it is not doing enough to stop the flow of illegal drugs into the United States.
Within minutes, China's Finance Ministry announced it would impose levies of 15 percent on American coal and liquefied natural gas, or LNG, and 10 percent on crude oil, farm equipment and some types of cars.
China also announced that it has launched an anti-monopoly investigation into Alphabet Inc.'s Google and added PVH Corp., the parent company of brands such as Calvin Klein, and American biotech firm Illumina to its "list of unreliable entities."
In addition, China's Ministry of Commerce and Customs Administration have also imposed export controls on some rare earth metals and critical metals used in high-tech devices and the clean energy transition.
China’s new tariffs targeting American exports are scheduled to go into effect on Feb. 10, giving the two countries time to try to reach a deal. Trump is scheduled to speak with Chinese President Xi Jinping later this week, according to a White House spokesman.
On Monday, Trump suspended the threat of 25 percent tariffs on Mexico and Canada, agreeing to a 30-day pause in exchange for concessions on border enforcement and crime with the two neighbors.
In 2018, Trump began a two-year trade war with China, fueled by America's large trade surplus. The trade war involved retaliatory tariffs on hundreds of billions of dollars worth of goods, disrupting global supply chains and hurting the world economy.
Trump warned that he could raise further tariffs on China if Beijing does not stop the flow of fentanyl, a deadly opioid, into the United States.
"Hopefully China will stop sending us fentanyl, and if they don't, the tariffs will go much higher," Trump said Monday.
Beijing has called fentanyl an American problem and said it would challenge tariffs at the World Trade Organization (WTO) and take other retaliatory measures, but left the door open for talks.
The United States accounted for 1.7 percent of China's total crude oil imports last year, about $6 billion, making it a relatively small source. But for LNG, more than 5 percent of China's imports came from the United States.
Post a Comment for "China Imposes Additional Tariffs on US Imports in Response to Trump"