China imposes retaliatory tariffs on $50 billion worth of US products

Shanghai, China, Jun 16 (EFE).- China said on Saturday it will impose new import tariffs on about $50 billion worth of products from the United States, in response to the latest announcement by the US imposing new tariffs on goods from China,



The Chinese State Council decided to impose 25 percent additional tariffs on 659 US products, including vehicles and agricultural products, two of the most sensitive sectors for the US.



The announcement made in a statement released by the Customs Commission that came a few hours after US President Donald Trump announced that his administration was imposing a 25 percent tariff on $50 billion worth of goods from China that contained “industrially significant technologies.”



China’s Commerce Ministry announced late Friday that, although it did not want to have a trade war with the United States, it would respond to new tariffs announced by Washington in a forceful and immediate manner.



Tariffs on 545 items worth about $34 billion, including agricultural products and vehicles, will be implemented beginning Jul. 6



Tariffs on the remaining 114 items, covering chemical products, medical equipment and energy products, will become effective at a date to be announced later.



The decision was made in line with the relevant stipulations of the Foreign Trade Law of China and the Regulations of the People’s Republic of China on Import and Export Duties, as well as the fundamental principles of international law, according to the statement.



“The US move violates the relevant rules of the World Trade Organization, goes against the consensus already reached in bilateral economic and trade consultations, seriously infringes upon the legitimate rights and interests of the Chinese side and undermines the interests of China and its people,” the statement by the Customs Tariff Commission read.



Speaking to the state-owned Xinhua news agency, an official in charge of the Office of the Customs Tariff Commission said that the additional tariffs targeting Chinese goods, once imposed, would “substantially change” the trade conditions of these goods, and affect relevant producers and trade companies. </s> China retaliates with tariffs on $75 billion of US goods </s> Last month, after the U.S. leveled tariffs on $34 billion of Chinese imports and after China retaliated in kind, Beijing described the escalating trans-Pacific antagonism as "the largest trade war in economic history."

Now, both nations have upped the ante once again.

In the early morning hours Thursday, the U.S. slapped long-promised tariffs of 25 percent on an additional 279 Chinese products, amounting to $16 billion. The levies were imposed over what the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative calls "China's unfair trade practices related to the forced transfer of American technology and intellectual property."

Beijing wasted no time responding — literally. At precisely 12:01 a.m. ET, the Chinese Ministry of Commerce released a statement vowing to "make the necessary counterattacks." And then it matched the Trump administration's move with tariffs on $16 billion worth of U.S. imports, ranging from diesel fuel and coal to medical instruments and cars.

The Commerce Ministry also declared that it plans to file a complaint with the World Trade Organization "in order to defend free trade and the multilateral system, and defend its legitimate rights and interests."

Combined with the round of tariffs that took effect in early July, two countries have imposed tariffs on a total of $100 billion of their traded goods.

And the tit-for-tat is unlikely to stop there.

Earlier this month, both sides mused publicly that they were considering measures beyond those implemented Thursday, which had been expected for weeks. Shortly after the White House said it was considering raising tariffs on $200 billion of Chinese goods, to 25 percent from 10 percent — tariffs that have not yet gone into effect — China answered that it would retaliate with four kinds of tariffs on $60 billion of U.S. goods.

Late last month, President Trump said he's "ready to go to 500" — threatening to impose tariffs on imports of all Chinese goods. The U.S. imported $505 billion worth of Chinese goods last year, according to Census Bureau data.

The U.S. has used tariffs as a stick with a number of nations in recent months, slapping levies on products from Canada and Mexico to Turkey the European Union — and has in turn been hit with retaliatory tariffs.

Some U.S. manufacturers have said their businesses have already been impacted by tariffs on products such as steel and aluminum, and consumers may soon start to feel more of a pinch if companies pass along those costs.

David Wessel of the Brookings Institution explained on NPR's Morning Edition some exported U.S. goods, such as almonds, have seen their prices drop domestically because Chinese tariffs have driven down demand abroad. But he adds that many other products, such as washing machines, have risen dramatically in price recently.

"Different businesses will make different decisions. Some will absorb the cost of the tariffs in their profits and not raise prices so much. Others will raise prices," Wessel said. "A lot have been trying to do it for the last couple of years and have been unable to do so. If you raise prices, you're never going to say it's because, well, 'I want to make more money' — you're going to blame it on the tariffs."

Even as China and the U.S. trade tariffs, a Chinese delegation meeting with their American counterparts for trade talks this week in Washington, D.C. And a Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson expressed guarded optimism about how they're going.

"We certainly hope the talks could lead to good outcomes," Lu Kang told reporters Tuesday, "but one thing you should know is that we prefer no unnecessary prejudgments and predictions."

The day before, however, Trump told Reuters that there's "no time frame" for ending the trade dispute, and that he doesn't "anticipate much" from the trade negotiations in Washington. </s> WASHINGTON/TIANJIN, Sept 18 (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump escalated his trade war with Beijing, imposing 10 percent tariffs on about $200 billion worth of imports in a move one senior Chinese regulator said "poisoned" the atmosphere for negotiations.

Trump also warned in a statement on Monday that if China takes retaliatory action against U.S. farmers or industries, "we will immediately pursue phase three, which is tariffs on approximately $267 billion of additional imports."

China is reviewing plans to send a delegation to Washington for fresh talks in light of the U.S. decision, the South China Morning Post reported on Tuesday, citing a government source in Beijing, raising the risk of a prolonged trade battle between the world's largest economies that could hit global growth.

U.S. trade actions against China will not work as China has ample fiscal and monetary policy tools to cope with the impact, a senior securities market official said.

"President Trump is a hard-hitting businessman, and he tries to put pressure on China so he can get concessions from our negotiations. I think that kind of tactic is not going to work with China," Fang Xinghai, vice chairman of China's securities regulator, said at a conference in the port city of Tianjin.

Collection of tariffs on the long-anticipated list will start on Sept. 24 but the rate will increase to 25 percent by the end of 2018, allowing U.S. companies some time to adjust their supply chains to alternate countries.

So far, the United States has imposed tariffs on $50 billion worth of Chinese products to pressure Beijing to make sweeping changes to its trade, technology transfer and high-tech industrial subsidy policies. China has retaliated in kind.

Vice Premier Liu He was set to convene a meeting in Beijing on Tuesday morning to discuss the government's response, Bloomberg News reported, citing a person briefed on the matter.

China has vowed to retaliate against new U.S. tariffs, with state-run media arguing for an aggressive "counterattack."

Last month, it unveiled a proposed list of tariffs on $60 billion of U.S. goods ranging from liquefied natural gas to certain types of aircraft - should Washington activate the tariffs on its $200 billion list.

The effect of the 10 percent tariffs will gradually show up in China's fourth-quarter data, and the full impact of the total 25 percent tariffs is expected to be felt next year, dragging down China's gross domestic product (GDP) growth rate by 0.83 percentage point, Citi analysts wrote in a note.

Fang said that even if Trump puts tariffs on all Chinese exports to the United States, the negative impact on China's economy will be about 0.7 percent. He did not say whether he was referring to the impact on the amount of GDP or the GDP growth.

Trump's latest escalation of tariffs on China comes after several meetings yielded no progress. U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin last week invited top Chinese officials to a new round of talks, but thus far nothing has been scheduled.

"We have been very clear about the type of changes that need to be made, and we have given China every opportunity to treat us more fairly," Trump said in his statement. "But, so far, China has been unwilling to change its practices."

Fang told the Tianjin forum that he hopes the two sides can sit down and talk, but added that the latest U.S. move has "poisoned" the atmosphere.

A senior Trump administration official told reporters that the United States was open to further talks with Beijing, but offered no immediate details on when they may occur.

"This is not an effort to constrain China, but this is an effort to work with China and say, 'It's time you address these unfair trade practices that we've identified that others have identified and that have harmed the entire trading system,'" the official said.

So far, China has either imposed or proposed tariffs on $110 billion of U.S. goods, representing most of its imports of American products.

"Tensions in the global economic system have manifested themselves in the U.S.-China trade war, which is now seriously disrupting global supply chains," the European Union Chamber of Commerce in China said in a statement on Tuesday.

China's yuan currency slipped 0.3 percent against the U.S. dollar in Asian trade on Tuesday. It has weakened by about 6.0 percent since mid-June, offsetting the 10 percent tariff rate by a considerable margin.

The latest U.S. move spared smart watches from Apple and Fitbit and other consumer products such as baby car seats. But if the administration enacts the additional tariffs on $267 billion in goods, it would engulf all remaining U.S. imports from China and Apple products like the iPhone and its competitors would not likely be spared.

The U.S. Trade Representative's office eliminated 297 product categories from the proposed tariff list, along with some subsets of other categories.

But the adjustments did little to appease technology and retail groups who argued U.S. consumers would feel the pain.

"President Trump´s decision...is reckless and will create lasting harm to communities across the country," said Dean Garfield, president of the Information Technology Industry Council, which represents major tech firms.

"Tariffs are a tax on American families, period," said Hun Quach," RILA's vice president for international trade.

"Consumers - not China - will bear the brunt of these tariffs and American farmers and ranchers will see the harmful effects of retaliation worsen."

Kenneth Jarrett, president of the American Chamber of Commerce in Shanghai, said three quarters of its members will be hit by the tariffs, and they will not bring jobs back to the United States.

"Most of our member companies are 'in China, for China' - selling goods to Chinese companies and consumers, not to Americans - and thus ultimately boosting the U.S. economy," Jarrett said. (Reporting by Steve Holland, David Lawder, Ginger Gibson, Eric Beech and David Shepardson; Additional reporting by Kevin Yao in TIANJIN, John Ruwitch in SHANGHAI and Michael Martina and Ryan Woo in BEIJING; Editing by Clive McKeef and Kim Coghill) </s> WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States began collecting higher, 25% tariffs on many Chinese goods arriving in U.S. seaports on Saturday morning in an intensification of the trade war between the world’s two largest economies and drawing retaliation from Beijing.

Containers are seen at a port in Huaian, Jiangsu province, China May 5, 2019. Picture taken May 5, 2019. REUTERS/Stringer

U.S. President Donald Trump imposed the tariff increase on a$200 billion list of Chinese goods on May 10, but had allowed a grace period for sea-borne cargoes that departed China before that date, keeping them at the prior, 10% duty rate.

The U.S. Trade Representative’s office in a May 15 Federal Register notice set a June 1 deadline for those goods to arrive in the United States, after which U.S. Customs and Border protection would begin collecting the 25% duty rate at U.S. ports. The deadline expired at 12:01 a.m. EDT on Saturday

The tariff increase affects a broad range of consumer goods, and intermediate components from China including internet modems and routers, printed circuit boards, furniture, vacuum cleaners and lighting products.

Earlier on Saturday, China began collecting higher retaliatory tariffs on much of a $60 billion target list of U.S. goods. The tariffs, announced on May 13 and taking effect as of midnight in Beijing (1600 GMT), apply additional 20% or 25% tariffs on more than half of the 5,140 U.S. products targeted. Beijing had previously imposed additional rates of 5% or 10% on the targeted goods.

No further trade talks between top Chinese and U.S. negotiators have been scheduled since the last round ended in a stalemate on May 10, the same day when Trump announced higher tariffs on $200 billion of Chinese goods and then took steps to levy duties on all remaining Chinese imports.

China ordered the latest tariff increases in response to Trump’s move.

Related Coverage China to issue white paper on trade talks with U.S. on Sunday

Trump has accused China of breaking a deal to settle their trade dispute by reneging on earlier commitments made during months of negotiations. China has denied the allegations.

Beijing has grown more strident in recent weeks, accusing Washington of lacking sincerity and vowing that it will not cave to the Trump administration’s demands.

Its rhetoric has hardened particularly since Washington put Chinese company Huawei Technologies Co Ltd on a blacklist that effectively bans the firm from doing business with U.S. companies. </s> BEIJING — The U.S.-China trade war escalated further Tuesday, with China announcing retaliatory tax increases on $60 billion worth of U.S. imports, including coffee, honey and industrial chemicals.

The increases are in response to the U.S. announcing it will impose tariffs on $200 billion worth of Chinese-made goods starting next week. The tariffs will start at 10 per cent, then rise to 25 per cent on Jan. 1.

China’s Finance Ministry said its tariff increases are aimed at curbing “trade friction” and the “unilateralism and protectionism of the United States.”

There was no word on whether China would back out of trade talks it said it was invited to by the U.S., but a Chinese Commerce Ministry statement said the U.S. increase “brings new uncertainty to the consultations.”

The two countries have already imposed import taxes on $50 billion worth of each other’s goods. President Donald Trump threatened to add an additional $267 billion in Chinese imports to the target list if China retaliated for the latest U.S. taxes. That would raise the total affected by U.S. penalties to $517 billion, covering nearly everything China sells to the United States.

The American Chamber of Commerce in China warned Tuesday that Washington is underestimating Beijing’s determination to fight back.

“The downward spiral that we have previously warned about now seems certain to materialize,” said William Zarit, the chamber’s chairman.

At the root of the trade war are U.S. complaints about China’s plans to try to overtake U.S. technological supremacy. Those plans include “Made in China 2025,” which calls for creating powerful Chinese entities to compete in robotics and other fields. The U.S. says the plans are based on stolen technology, violate China’s market-opening commitments and might erode American industrial leadership.

American companies and trading partners including the European Union and Japan have longstanding complaints about Chinese market barriers and industrial policy. But they object to Trump’s tactics and warn the dispute could chill global economic growth and undermine international trade regulation.

Trump has strained relations with potential allies including the European Union, Canada and Mexico by raising tariffs on imported steel and aluminum. He demanded Canada and Mexico renegotiate the North American Free Trade Agreement to make it more favourable to the United States.

Trump has also complained about America’s gaping trade deficit — $336 billion last year — with China, its biggest trading partner.

“China has had many opportunities to fully address our concerns,” Trump said in a statement. “I urge China’s leaders to take swift action to end their country’s unfair trade practices.”

The trade gap means China will run out of U.S. imports to tax while the U.S. still has plenty of Chinese imports to target. But Beijing has other ways to retaliate. American companies say regulators are already starting to disrupt their operations.

Last week, the American Chambers of Commerce in China and in Shanghai reported 52 per cent of more than 430 companies that responded to a survey said they have faced slower customs clearance and increased inspections and bureaucratic procedures.

The U.S. taxes are targeting Chinese goods that Washington says have benefited from improper industrial policies. Beijing’s tariffs have hit soybeans and other farm goods from states that voted for Trump in 2016.

“Contrary to views in Washington, China can — and will — dig its heels in and we are not optimistic about the prospect for a resolution in the short term,” said Zarit of the American Chamber of Commerce. “No one will emerge victorious from this counter-productive cycle.”

In the first two rounds of tariffs, the Trump administration took care to try to spare American consumers from the direct impact of the import taxes. The tariffs focused on industrial products, not on things Americans buy at the mall or via Amazon.

By expanding the list to $200 billion of Chinese products, Trump may spread the pain to ordinary households. The administration is targeting a bewildering variety of goods — from sockeye salmon to baseball gloves to bamboo mats — forcing U.S. companies to scramble for suppliers outside China, absorb the import taxes or pass along the cost to their customers.

The U.S. government did withdraw some items from its preliminary list of imports to be taxed, including child-safety products such as bicycle helmets. And in a victory for Apple Inc., the administration removed smart watches and some other consumer electronics products. </s> China is moving forward with retaliatory tariffs on U.S. products, including the 25 percent tariff on U.S. pork. China’s Ministry of Finance announced Sunday it will suspend duty reductions on select imported goods from the United States.

In the announcement, China says the Trump administration’s steel and aluminum imports to the U.S. violate World Trade Organization rules, and “did not comply with the security exceptions provision.” China alleges the move by trump caused “serious damage” to China’s interests. China is targeting U.S. items, including fruits, along with the 25 percent tariff on U.S. pork.

China says the nation is using its action as a method to “safeguard its interest,” as allowed by WTO rules. Last week, China’s Ministry of Finance said the action by the U.S. had “severely damaged” the multilateral trade system. China also made a World Trade Organization filing last week to seek consultations regarding the issue. </s> The US on Tuesday published a list of $200 billion (€170 billion) worth of Chinese goods that could soon be hit with tariffs.

The move is a major escalation in a brewing trade war between the world's two largest economies.

Read more: Germany, China seek closer alliance over trade spat with US

According to the Office of the US Trade Representative:
• The additional 6,031 product lines would be hit with a 10 percent tariff.
• The list is subject to two months of finalization and input before possible implementation by President Donald Trump.
• The earliest they would come into effect is September.
• The products include various food items, chemicals, minerals, tobacco, electronics and office goods.

The Retail Industry Leaders Association said new tariffs on Chinese imports would punish American families by driving up prices.

US Senate Finance Committee Chairman Orrin Hatch described the move was "reckless."

The previous round of tariffs: The Trump administration last week imposed 25 percent tariffs on $34 million in Chinese goods, prompting Beijing to impose retaliatory tariffs of the same amount on US imports. The US has suggested that it may ultimately impose tariffs on $500 billion worth of Chinese goods, or roughly the entire amount of US imports from China.

Chinese retaliation: China has threatened to retaliate dollar-for-dollar if the Trump administration imposes a new round of tariffs. However, because China exports more to the US than it imports there are limits on the amount of tariffs Beijing can impose on American goods. This has raised concerns that China could retaliate with non-tariff trade measures.

Trade war with the world: US tariffs on aluminum and steel from Canada, the EU and other countries have also triggered retaliatory tariffs on US goods. The prospect of an international trade war has sent jitters through world markets. </s> The Latest: China to hike tariffs on $60 billion in US goods

BEIJING (AP) — The Latest on the tariffs battle between China and the United States (all times local):

China has announced it is raising tariffs on $60 billion in U.S. goods in retaliation for the latest penalties on its exports announced by the Trump administration.

The Finance Ministry said Monday the penalty duties of 5% to 25% on hundreds of U.S. products including batteries, spinach and coffee take effect June 1.

That followed Trump's increase Friday of duties on $200 billion of Chinese imports from 10% to 25% in a dispute over Beijing's technology ambitions and trade surplus.

Companies are waiting to see how China will retaliate for President Donald Trump's latest tariff hikes on Chinese imports while economists warned the escalating dispute could slow growth.

Chinese officials gave no indication Monday what steps they might take after threatening "necessary countermeasures" for Trump's penalties on $200 billion of Chinese goods, imposed Friday.

Trade talks wrapped up later Friday in Washington without an agreement.

Jake Parker, the vice president of the U.S.-China Business Council, an industry group, said officials appeared to be studying the potential impact on China's economy before deciding how to respond.

Morgan Stanley economists said the tariff hike could trim China's annual economic growth by 0.5 percentage points. They said that impact could grow if uncertainty prompts companies to cut jobs or postpone investment.
China retaliates on the United States' latest tariff decisions by imposing tariffs of up to 25% on some American goods.