CHINA BITES BACK WITH SLEW OF TARIFFS

Target 128 U.S. products, markets plunge

WASHINGTON • China’s government plans to immediately impose tariffs on 128 U.S. products, including pork and certain fruits, a response to President Donald Trump’s moves to pursue trade restrictions against Beijing.

If U.S. goods become more expensive in China, Chinese buyers could opt to purchase products from Europe, South America or elsewhere, though White House officials have routinely discounted the likelihood of this.

The news of retaliatory tariffs from China, along with the deepening rout in once high-flying technology shares, rattled markets, sending U.S. stocks tumbling to start the second quarter.

The S&P 500 Index closed at the lowest level since early February and finished below its average price for the past 200 days for the first time since June 2016.

The S&P 500 Index is lower by more than 10 per cent from its January record.

Beijing’s move could force Trump to decide whether to follow through on expansive trade restrictions he had hoped would crack down on China even if Beijing is now threatening to harm U.S. companies that rely on Asian markets for buyers.

The People’s Daily, an English-language news organization controlled by the Chinese government, said Sunday that “China imposes tariffs on 128 items of imports from the U.S. including pork and fruit products starting Monday as a countermeasure in response to a previous U.S. move to slap tariffs on steel and aluminum imports: Ministry of Finance.”

The Chinese government said the tariffs would effectively serve as retaliation for restrictions Trump announced last month.

In early March, Trump said he planned to apply steep tariffs on steel and aluminum imports. Since then, he has exempted numerous countries, but he has not waived the impact on China.

And in late March, Trump took additional steps toward imposing tariffs on US$60 billion in Chinese goods and limiting China’s ability to invest in the U.S. technology industry. He has alleged that the U.S. government had been too complacent in allowing Chinese firms to steal U.S. intellectual property and abuse trade rules. He has accused China of trade practices that led to the closure of 60,000 factories and the loss of 6 million jobs.

His new, unilateral trade steps, though, shocked many U.S. businesses and foreign leaders, particularly because Trump had taken a more cautious approach in his first year, seeming to dial back some of the populist trade rhetoric he made during the 2016 campaign.

In a statement from the Chinese Ministry of Finance, the government said the new tariffs “caused serious damage to our interests.”

Trump has for years accused the Chinese government of unfair trade practices, which he says put U.S. companies at a disadvantage. Many other foreign leaders have agreed that China unfairly subsidizes its businesses and has at times devalued its currency to boost exports, but most have favoured a multinational approach to apply pressure on Beijing.

Trump has expressed disgust for multilateral trade decisions and has favoured more adversarial action. For his first year in office, a number of key advisers — including National Economic Council director Gary Cohn and Secretary of State Rex Tillerson — had tried to persuade Trump to be careful before following through on some of his trade threats, but both men have recently departed, and now Trump is surrounded by advisers who support some of these protectionist decisions.

A number of U.S. business groups have warned that these tariffs could backfire because they could make it harder for American companies to sell goods overseas if other nations retaliate, but Trump and Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross have expressed skepticism that the impact of these moves would be substantial.

China exported $505 billion in goods to the U.S., and U.S. companies exported $135 billion in goods to China in 2017. Trump says the difference between these two numbers is too large and should be eliminated or at least greatly diminished. His precise approach with Beijing is hard to pinpoint because he has occasionally praised Chinese leader Xi Jinping, while also suggesting that Xi’s administration will not offer concessions that he believes are necessary.

The National Pork Producers Council said in late March that its members exported US$1.1 billion in pork to China last year, making it its third-largest market.