TRADE TIT FOR TAT

China hits back after Trump’s $50B in tariffs

A farmer in Ohio finds himself in the cross hairs of a global trade war.

The Trump administration announced plans to levy 25 percent tariffs on $50 billion worth of Chinese products in an effort to squash the “unfair trade practices” from the Asian country Friday.

China’s response was swift, as it announced Saturday that it too would be levying retaliatory tariffs on $34 billion worth of US goods — including soy products and automobiles.

“Let’s work on the trade issue but not by issuing tariffs. Tariffs lower our incomes,” Bret Davis, an Ohio-based soybean farmer, told The Post Friday.

Caught in the middle as the world’s two largest economies battle over trade are US farmers and other businesses that are being squeezed.

“We spent 40 years building that market. We want to trade,” said Davis, who also sits on the governing committee of the American Soybean Association.

With retaliatory tariffs, soybean exports could fall by 65 percent, the American Soybean Association said, pointing to a Purdue University study. The US shipped $14 billion worth of soybeans to China last year.

“We can lose a lot of income,” Davis said, adding that he worries prices could “get down to the point where we’re not profitable at all.”

The Trump administration levied the tariffs to halt what it calls the “forced transfer of American technology and intellectual property” to China.

“China’s government is aggressively working to undermine America’s hightech industries and our economic leadership through unfair trade practices and industrial policies like ‘Made in China 2025,’ ” US Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer said in a statement Friday.

The first wave of US tariffs, affecting $34 billion worth of Chinese goods across 818 product catego- ries, goes into effect on July 6. The second wave — affecting $16 billion of Chinese goods focused on semiconductors and electronics — is subject to a review and comment period as well as a public hearing. China’s retaliatory tariffs will follow a similar schedule.

“We must take strong defensive actions to protect America’s leadership in technology and innovation,” Lighthizer said.

But despite the Trump administration’s intentions, much of the response in the US on Friday appeared to be “thanks but no thanks.”

The Dow Jones industrial average fell more than 200 points in midday trades before paring losses to end the day down 84.83 points at 25,090.48.

The S&P 500 and Nasdaq closed down 0.1 percent and 0.2 percent respectively.

And while the Trump administration’s list of tariffed goods spared cellphones and televisions, retailers warned that pain for manufacturers and consumers could still come due to “complicated supply chains.”

“A lot of products that are necessary for making other products are on this list,” said David French, senior vice president for the National Retail Federation.