The statement followed closely on the announcement that Trump would target US$50 billion in Chinese imports with tariffs, making good on a pledge to punish the alleged theft of USA intellectual property.
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“The United States can no longer tolerate losing our technology and intellectual property through unfair economic practices”.
President Trump is set to impose fresh tariffs on $50 billion worth of Chinese imports, in a step that could further escalate the president’s burgeoning trade war with many of its closest partners.
“US-China trade tensions will be long-lasting”, Yifan Hu, regional chief investment officer and chief China economist at UBS Wealth Management, told reporters in Beijing.
An administration official made the announcement Thursday, saying the White House is due to unveil a revised list of tariffs targeting $50 billion from 800 different Chinese goods.
He reiterated that his friendship with President Xi Jinping and America’s relationship with China are both very important to him.
Fearing that China would turn threats into reality by imposing tariffs on USA agricultural goods, soybean futures settling in July also fell 1% to a near one-year low of $9.17 Friday.
China quickly answered with its own tariffs on American goods.
Beijing intends to impose tariffs with “equal scale, equal intensity” on imports from the United States and any consensus the two sides reached earlier would lose effect, the Commerce Ministry said in a statement on its website late Friday.
“If the United States side adopts unilateral protectionist measures and damages China’s interests, we will immediately react and take necessary measures to firmly safeguard our legitimate rights and interests”, said foreign ministry spokesman Geng Shuang during a regular news briefing. The new lines will go through a separate review period before being before U.S. Customs and Border Control can collect additional taxes on those goods.
“If the USA side adopts unilateral measures of protectionism and damages China’s interests, then we will respond right away, and take necessary measures to resolutely safeguard our own legitimate rights and interests”, Geng said.
It also called on other countries to “take collective action” against the United States move, calling it “outdated and backwards behaviour”.
Following the decision, Congresswoman Rosa DeLauro said tariffs must be seen as one tool among many the USA could use to hold bad actors like China accountable and bring the Chinese government to the table to secure a more favourable balance of trade.
In its statement, China said the new US tariffs violate World Trade Organization rules and threaten the interests of the Chinese government and its people.
A Reuters analysis of U.S. Census Bureau import data in April showed that there were about 7,600 consumer and industrial goods still available for tariffs with a combined value of $101 billion in which China accounts for 40 per cent or less of usa imports.
The US tariffs announced Friday will be enacted in two waves.
“My message has been consistent: we need to hit our target, which is China and its deceptive and harmful trading practices”, Republican Rep. Kevin Brady, chair of the House Ways and Means Committee, said. “He’s a great man, he’s a wonderful guy, but at some point we have to straighten it out”, Trump said in an interview on Fox News. It authorizes the U.S. President to impose tariffs when it is in the interest of American “national security”.
The Trump administration in May also assessed steel and aluminum tariffs on Canada, the European Union and Mexico.
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The tariffs will take effect within days. International Monetary Fund chief Christine Lagarde said the move could have a “macroeconomic impact” if the US’s other trading partners retaliate.
