China said Tuesday it would impose tariffs on imports of US energy, vehicles and equipment, firing a return salvo in an escalating trade war between the world’s two biggest economies.
US President Donald Trump on Saturday announced sweeping measures against major trade partners Canada and Mexico, with goods from China hit with an additional 10 percent tariff on top of the duties they already endure.
Minutes after they came into effect, Beijing unveiled levies of 15 percent on imports of coal and liquefied natural gas from the United States, while crude oil, agricultural machinery, big-engined vehicles, and pickup trucks face 10 percent duties.
China is a major market for US energy exports and according to Beijing customs data, imports of oil, coal and LNG totalled more than $7 billion last year.
But that is dwarfed by China’s imports from more friendly powers such as Russia, from which it purchased $94 billion-worth last year.
Beijing said the measures were in response to the “unilateral tariff hike” by Washington.
The US decision, China said, “seriously violates World Trade Organization rules, does nothing to resolve its own problems, and disrupts normal economic and trade cooperation between China and the United States”.
With that in mind, Beijing said it would file a complaint with the WTO over the “malicious” levies.
Alongside its tariffs, China announced a probe into US tech giant Google and the addition of US fashion group PVH Corp. — which owns Tommy Hilfiger and Calvin Klein — and biotech giant Illumina to a list of “unreliable entities”.
Beijing also unveiled fresh export controls on rare metals and chemicals including tungsten, tellurium, bismuth, and molybdenum, used in a range of industrial appliances.
“I think the retaliation is not aggressive, as China only targets some US products, in response to the US tariff on all China’s exports to the US,” Zhang Zhiwei of Pinpoint Asset Management said in a note.
“This is likely only the beginning of a long process for the two countries to negotiate.”
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