The Register Citizen (Torrington, CT)
China ups tariffs on U.S. pork, fruit
China raised import duties on a $3 billion list of U.S. pork, apples and other products Monday in an escalating dispute with Washington over trade and industrial policy.
The government of President Xi Jinping said it was responding to a U.S. tariff hike on steel and aluminum. But that is just one facet of sprawling tensions with Washington, Europe and Japan over a state-led economic model they complain hampers market access, protects Chinese companies and subsidizes exports in violation of Beijing's freetrade commitments.
Already, companies are looking ahead to a bigger fight over U.S. President Donald Trump's approval of higher duties on up to $50 billion of Chinese goods in response to complaints that Beijing steals or pressures foreign companies to hand over technology.
Forecasters say the impact of Monday's move should be limited, but investors worry the global recovery might be set back if other governments respond by raising import barriers.
On Monday, the main stock market indexes in Tokyo and Shanghai ended the day down.
The tariffs “signal a most unwelcome development, which is that countries are becoming protectionist,” said economist Taimur Baig of DBS Group. But in commercial terms, they are “not very substantial” compared with China's $150 billion in annual imports of U.S. goods, he said.
Monday's tariff increase will hit American farm states, many of which voted for Trump in 2016.
Beijing is imposing a 25 percent tariff on U.S. pork and aluminum scrap and 15 percent on sparkling wine, steel pipe used by oil and gas companies, and an array of fruits and nuts including apples, walnuts and grapes.
American farm exports to China in 2017 totaled nearly $20 billion, including $1.1 billion of pork products.
There was no indication whether Beijing might exempt Chinese-owned American suppliers such as Smithfield Foods, the biggest U.S. pork producer, which is ramping up exports to China.
The U.S. tariff hike has “has seriously damaged our interests,” the Finance Ministry said in a statement.
“Our country advocates and supports the multilateral trading system,” it said. China's tariff increase “is a proper measure adopted by our country using World Trade Organization rules to protect our interests,” the statement said.
White House spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders said Monday on the television show “Fox and Friends” that Trump was “going to fight back and he's going to push back.”
The dispute reflects the clash between Trump's promise to narrow the U.S. trade surplus with China — a record $375.2 billion last year — and Beijing's ambitious plans to develop Chinese industry and technology.