12th April 2018: Trump raises stakes again
Trump threatened on Thursday, that the US would consider adding tariffs to an additional USD 100 billion in Chinese goods. With this, US tariffs would be placed on a total of USD 153 billion in products. This value is higher than the total value of the US products bought by China last year (USD 130.4 billion), which makes a similar retaliation for China difficult. The Chinese retaliation would probably focus on the service sector, rather than product trade.
The Chinese side stated that the US is arrogant and takes the wrong actions. If the USD 100 billion tariffs are realized, then the country is prepared to counter them immediately. The Chinese government generally stated that it doesn’t want a trade war but is prepared to fight one.
5th April 2018: China strikes back hard and plans to hit the US with tariffs worth USD 50 billion
China’s ministry of commerce announced that it plans to impose a 25% percent tax on US imports worth USD 50 billion, which is about the same amount as Trump’s administration proposed on Tuesday. The tax will affect 106 products, including aircraft, autos, soybeans and chemicals.
The announcement led to a heavy selling in the global financial markets.
According to experts, the purpose of these new taxes is not to escalate to trade war, it is to show no weakness and force the US back to the negotiating table and with that defuse the potential trade war.
Who are the winners and looser of the trade war? Read the article on msn.com to find out
1st April 2018: China retaliates and hits US with trade tariffs on 128 products
The trade tariffs, which the Chinese government already announced two weeks ago, are going into effect on April 2nd.
China will hit the US with tariffs on 128 products, including pork meat and steel pipes. The Chinese governments trade threats total on about USD 3 billion. In comparison, Trump threatened to impose tariffs on Chinese-made products worth USD 60 billion.
China’s Ministry of Commerce said, that it will impose the tariffs in two steps, first a 15 percent on 120 products and after an additional assessment of the US tariffs, a 25 percent tariff on eight other products. One of those additional products will be pork, which is an important source of income in US farming regions that often voted for Trump.
On it’s online portal, China’s Ministry of Commerce stated: “We hope that the United States can withdraw measures that violate WTO rules as soon as possible to put trade in the relevant products between China and the US back on a normal track.”
