Trump institutes tariffs on Chinese imports
Beijing quickly fires back, adding to threat of trade war
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump brought the world’s two biggest economies to the brink of a trade war Friday by announcing a 25 percent tariff on up to $50 billion in Chinese imports to take effect July 6.
Beijing quickly responded that it would retaliate with penalties of the same scale on American goods — and it spelled out details to impose tariffs on 545 U.S. exports, including farm products, autos and seafood, according to the Wall Street Journal.
Trump said he was fulfilling a campaign pledge to crack down on what he says are China’s unfair trade practices and its efforts to undermine U.S. technology and intellectual property.
“We have the great brain power in Silicon Valley, and China and others steal those secrets,” Trump said on “Fox & Friends.” “We’re going to protect those secrets. Those are crown jewels for this country.”
Beijing’s Commerce Ministry retorted in a statement: “The Chinese side doesn’t want to fight a trade war, but facing the shortsightedness of the U.S. side, China has to fight back strongly. We will immediately introduce the same scale and equal taxation measures, and all economic and trade achievements reached by the two sides will be invalidated.”
The U.S. tariffs will cover 1,102 Chinese product lines worth about $50 billion a year. Included are 818 items, worth $34 billion a year.
The administration is targeting an additional 284 Chinese products, which it says benefit from Beijing’s strong-armed industrial policies.