China’s £45bn retaliation in Trump trade war

CHINA has announced tariffs on £45billion of US goods in retaliation for President Donald Trump’s decision to slap duties on £150billion in Chinese products.

Tariffs of between five and 10 per cent will take effect on 5,200 US products on Monday, the same day as the new US duties come into force, Beijing said.

The two sides had already traded tariff salvos on billions worth of goods over the summer. Announcing the move, a Beijing spokesman said: ‘If the United States insists on raising tariffs even more, China will respond accordingly.’

China also announced it was lodging a new complaint about the US at the World Trade Organisation. Beijing had previously warned that it would target US goods if Mr Trump made good on his threat to impose new tariffs. The lower Chinese tariff figure highlights Beijing’s inability to match the US dollar-for-dollar in a trade war.

The Chinese finance ministry has previously said products ranging from pig hides to cocoa butter and condoms would be hit by tariffs. The US imported around £380billion worth of products from China last year, compared to £99billion in US goods imported by China.