China fights back against US with $60bn of new tariffs
Beijing struck back at Donald Trump’s latest round of trade tariffs on Tuesday, imposing their own sanctions on $60bn worth of US goods.
The amount does not match the $200bn worth of tariffs that President Trump announced on Monday but will target goods such as liquefied natural gas from states loyal to the US President ahead of November’s mid-term elections, prompting him to react with outrage.
"There will be great and fast economic retaliation against China if our farmers, ranchers and/or industrial workers are targeted!" he tweeted.
The tariffs from both nations will take effect from 24 September, with the Chinese placing an additional 5% duty on products including small aircraft, computers and textiles, and an extra 10% on goods such as meat, wheat and wine.
This is the third round of sanctions this year and the White House had previously threatened to impose duties on a further $267bn of Chinese goods if Beijing continued to retaliate, which would effectively subject all of China’s exports to the US to some form of tariff.
China is now unable to equal the scale of Trump’s tariffs as its annual imports from the US amount to just $130bn, while its exports to the US exceed $500bn, but it could take other measures to fight back.
David Chmiel, the managing director of risk consultancy Global Torchlight, said: "There could be a weaponising of regulation by Beijing. You can see a situation where they target specific US companies."
This could mean that major US players with operations in China such as Apple, Nike and General Electric could face disruption when attempting mergers and acquisitions or in the form of tougher labour controls, health and safety standards or other regulations.
Nevertheless, and significantly perhaps, China did not close the door shut to the possibility of further trade talks, although some officials reportedly believed that informal channels would be the best conduit at the present time.