LIKE A BEAR IN A CHINA SHOP

$60B Trump tariffs tank stocks Prez hits ‘record’ trade deficit Beijing eyes tit-for-tat econ war

President Trump on Thursday took the first step to slap China with up to $60 billion in tariffs — sparking fears of a trade war that sent the Dow Jones industrial average plummeting more than 700 points.

During a White House signing ceremony, the president ordered Trade Representative Bob Lighthizer to put together a package of new tariffs on Chinese imports, saying the move would make the United States safer and stronger.

“It is the largest deficit of any country in the history of our world,” Trump said of the USChina trade imbalance, which was $375 billion in 2017, blaming it for lost American jobs.

The president also directed Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin to prepare a plan to restrict Chinese investments in American companies to combat intellectual-property theft.

The Chinese, through hacking and the government’s requirement that US companies share technology and other information to do business in the country, have cashed in by exploiting American innovations, officials charged.

China had already warned that it would take “all necessary measures” to defend itself, raising the prospect of a tit-for-tat trade war between the world’s two largest economies.

“China will not sit idly to see its legitimate rights damaged and must take all necessary measures to resolutely defend its legitimate rights,” the Commerce Ministry in Beijing said in a statement on its Web site.

The Dow steadily cratered during the rest of the afternoon, falling by 740 points before ending the day down 724, putting it below the 24,000 threshold.

Analysts said Wall Street’s negative response to the tariffs was predictable.

“Completely understandable, given the impact that trade has on the global economy. I’m comforted that this is a contrived crisis; it could just as easily be undone as it was created,” Jack Ablin, chief investment officer for Chicago-based Cresset Wealth Advisors, told The Post.

Lighthizer had already identified potential targets, including 1,300 product lines worth about $48 billion, but Trump said the package would grow to at least $60 billion.

Dozens of industry groups sent a letter last weekend to Trump warning that “the imposition of sweeping tariffs would trigger a chain reaction of negative consequences for the US economy, provoking retaliation; stifling US agriculture, goods and services exports, and raising costs for busi- nesses and consumers.”

But Trump, who campaigned on cutting America’s trade imbalance with other countries, insisted the move would help and not hurt the US economy.

“As a candidate, I pledged that if elected I would use every lawful tool to combat unfair trade, protect American workers, and defend our national security. Today, we took another critical step to fulfill that commitment,” he tweeted.

Critics and supporters reacted quickly to the decision.

“It could be a watershed moment,” said Stephen Ezell, vice president of global innovation policy at the Information Technology & Innovation Foundation, a think tank.

“The Trump administration’s decision to go down this path is illustrative that previous strategies have not borne the hoped-for fruit.”

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer offered rare praise for the president.

“The American advantage of intellectual property is one of the main things that will keep us number one economically in this century. But not if we allow it to be stolen and taken advantage of. And the country that does that more than any other is China,” said Schumer (D-NY).

Business groups mostly agreed that something had to be done about China’s aggressive technology push, but they worried that China would retaliate by targeting US exports of aircraft, soybeans and other products and start a war of escalating sanctions.

“The sanctions are a very big deal,” said Mary Lovely, a Syracuse University economist and senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics. “The Chinese see them as a major threat and do not want a costly trade war.”

Also Thursday, Lighthizer told the Senate Finance Committee that the European Union, Australia, Argentina, Brazil and South Korea would at least temporarily be exempt from the steep tariffs on imported steel and aluminum that Trump announced earlier this month.

Canada and Mexico had already been given a pass, as the United States tries to renegotiate the North American Free Trade Agreement with its neighbors to the north and south.

Trump wants to slap tariffs of 25 percent on imported steel and 10 percent on aluminum — trade penalties largely aimed at China for flooding the world with cheap steel and aluminum.