China’s retaliatory tariffs on US to come into effect today as trade war takes shape

With China’s retaliatory tariffs coming into effect on Monday, the trade war with the United States is now lon in full swing.

In response to the second round of tariffs from US President Donald Trump, China had announced 10-15 per cent tariffs on a host of products. Those tariffs have come into effect on Monday.

Previously, Trump had imposed an additional 10 per cent tariff on China on March 4 on top of the 10 per cent tariff that came into effect on Feb. 4. China also followed up the retaliatory measures of February with fresh retaliatory tariffs.

Shortly after Trump’s second round of tariffs came into effect on March, China announced 15 per cent tariffs on US chicken, wheat, corn, and cotton, and 10 per cent tariff on US soybeans, sorghum, pork, beef, aquatic products, fruits, vegetables, and dairy imports. These tariffs were to come into effect on March 10.

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Moreover, China suspended the import of US lumber and soybean on March 4 immediately. It also launched anti-circumvention investigation into the import of fiber optic products from the United States and put 10 more US firms on its unreliable entity list 15 US firms on its export control list, including aerospace and defense giants like General Dynamics Land Systems and General Atomics Aeronautical Systems, among others.

At the time, Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Lin Jian said the United States had repaid kindness with enmity.

“I would like to reiterate that the Chinese people have never been afraid of evil, do not believe in ghosts, and have never been bullied,” said Jian.

In the first round of retaliation in February, China imposed 15 per cent tariff on US coal and liquified natural gas (LNG) and 10 per cent on US crude oil, farm equipment, and some autos, that came into effect on Feb. 10. China also announced export controls on tungsten, tellurium, ruthenium, molybdenum, and ruthenium-related items to “safeguard national security interests” and launched an anti-monopoly investigation into US technology giant Google. It also included Calvin Klein-maker PVH Corp and US biotech company Illumina in its “unreliable entities list”.

On March 12, Trump’s 25 per cent tariffs on steel and aluminium are scheduled to be imposed and another round of escalation is expected.

Trump has so far imposed 20 per cent tariffs on China on top of pre-existing tariffs and 25 per cent tariffs on Canada and Mexico that he has eased to some extent by exempting goods traded under the US-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA). However, despite the exemption, the majority of goods from these countries continue to be tariffed because of USMCA’s limitations.