China counters in US trade war
Salt body to name quota for imports
CHINA on Friday struck back against US President Donald Trump’s trade offensive, intensifying the expanding and unpredictable dispute between the world’s two largest economies.
Late on Friday, China announced it was expanding its existing complaint against the United States at the World Trade Organization, hours after the countries slapped tit-for-tat tariffs on billions of dollars of cross-border trade.
Beijing called the new stage of the confrontation – which began when Washington pulled the trigger on 25 percent duties on $34 billion annual imports of Chinese machinery, electronics and other goods – “the largest trade war in economic history”.
And China’s foreign ministry said retaliatory tariffs of equal size and scope had taken effect “immediately”.
There was confusion about exactly what US products would be hit in the initial wave of tariffs as China’s Commerce Ministry had not published an updated list.
Economists have warned escalating trade frictions could throttle global growth and strike at the heart of the world trading system, causing economic shockwaves and potentially disrupting years of global growth.
US trade data released on Friday showed exports hit a record, as importers bumped up purchases, particularly of tarifftargeted US soy beans, to build up supplies before the new duties hit.
Analysts said this was the quiet before the storm, with US exports likely to fall off in the third quarter as both sides feel the effects of worsening trade relations.
Dialogue fails
The new tariffs could just be the opening skirmish in the trade war, as US President Donald Trump has vowed to hit as much as $450 billion in Chinese goods, the vast majority of that country’s imports.
That would add to disputes underway with Canada, Mexico and the European Union, which could worsen if he goes ahead with threatened tariffs on autos.
China’s government also announced it was adding this round of US tariffs to an existing complaint filed with the WTO in April shortly after Washington unveiled the threat to punish Beijing for its policies on intellectual property.
Months of dialogue between the two economic superpowers, including in the WTO, appeared to have failed, with Trump warning just hours before the tariffs came into effect that Washington was ready to escalate the dispute with duties on hundreds of billions of dollars more in Chinese imports.
Trump repeatedly has slammed what he describes as Beijing’s underhanded economic treatment of the United States. The US trade deficit in goods with China ballooned to a record $375.2 billion last year, stoking his ire.
US officials accuse China of buildingitsindustrialdominance by stealing the “crown jewels” of American technological knowhow through cyber-theft, forced transfers of intellectual property and state-sponsored corporate acquisitions.
A US court on Friday imposed the maximum $1.5 million fine for theft of trade secrets by the Chinese company Sinovel in a case that typified Washington’s complaints about Beijing’s conduct.
Prosecutors said AMSC lost 700 jobs and more than $1 billion in shareholder equity after Sinovel stole technology, including software, used in producing and operating wind turbines.
Sinovel has agreed to pay AMSC a total of $52.5 million in restitution.
Russia joins the fray
Despite dire warnings about the impact on the US, Trump believes the robust American economy can outlast its rivals in the current battle.
But China also believes its economy, with a greater focus on domestic demand and a reduced dependence on exports, can ride out the storm.
China central banker Ma Jun said the first punches will have only a “limited impact” on the nation’s economy, trimming GDP growth by 0.2 percentage points.
With only $130 billion in US imports to retaliate against, Beijing has said it will take “qualitative” and “quantitative” measures against the US, triggering fears it could cripple the operations of US multinationals operating there.
China’s Premier Li Keqiang said on a visit to Sofia that “A trade war benefits no one because it hurts free trade and the multilateral process.”
Moscow on Friday also announced it had slapped 25 percent tariffs on some US goods, joining the global push-back against Trump’s offensive. SALT producers in the Kingdom will meet next week to finalise import quotas in line with domestic demand, the chief technical officer of the KepKampot Salt Producers community (KKSPC) said on Sunday.
Last month, the KKSPC said Cambodia needed to import approximately 30,000 tonnes of salt to make up for a shortage in the Kingdom caused by heavy rains. This is the second major salt shortage on record.
Bun Narin, chief of the KKSPC said the meeting will be held next week to finalise the tally of demand before submitting the report to the government.
“We will meet with our board members to finalise the import quota for salt, after which we will send our report to the Ministry of Industry and Handicraft to assist with imports.
“We haven’t decided from which country we will import the salt, but we already have information on hand about the price and quota.
“So far we still have enough salt to meet demand, but we expect a shortage at the end of the year before the next season of harvesting,” he said.
There are around 5,000 hectares of salt fields in Kampot and Kep province, with the harvesting season lasting from January to late April.