China says it will fight back against tariffs ‘at any cost’ as markets slide
WASHINGTON — With President Donald Trump escalating his trade fight and China showing no signs of backing down, the two nations entered a new phase of escalated tensions that have upset financial markets and set off deepening worries of a trade war that could undermine global growth.
China responded Friday to Trump’s threat to impose tariffs on $100 billion worth of imported Chinese goods, on top of $50 billion worth of products announced earlier. China’s Commerce Ministry said it would fight the new tariffs “at any cost” with unspecified countermeasures.
It was the sharpest and latest in a series of tit-for-tat actions that, so far, have been mostly threats and warnings of retaliation. And officials on both sides left open the possibility of negotiations that could avoid tariffs and other protectionist measures.
But Treasury Secretary Steven T. Mnuchin on Friday acknowledged the potential of a trade war, and Trump’s top economic adviser, Larry Kudlow, said “Trump is not just using tariffs as a negotiating card” and is prepared to use them.
“I don’t like to use tariffs, but sometimes you have to use tariffs to bring countries to their senses,” Kudlow said, even as he sought, unsuccessfully, to calm markets and individuals by emphasizing that the U.S. is still months away from enacting the tariffs against China and that there were “all kinds of back-channel discussions going on” between the two nations.
Trump said Friday that investors might feel “a little pain” because of his trade actions against China, and the stock market quickly proved him right.
The Dow Jones industrial average fell 572.46 points, or 2.3 percent, its worst percentage drop in two weeks and, at its low Friday, the Dow had fallen 767 points, or 3.1 percent.