China lists U.S. goods for tariffs

China on Wednesday issued a $50 billion list of U.S. goods including soybeans and small aircraft for possible tariff hikes in an escalating and potentially damaging technology dispute with Washington.

The country’s tax agency gave no date for the 25 percent increase to take effect and said it will depend on what President Donald Trump does about U.S. plans to raise duties on a similar amount of Chinese goods.

Beijing’s list of 106 products included the biggest U.S. exports to China, reflecting its intense sensitivity to the dispute over American complaints that it pressures foreign companies to hand over technology.

The clash reflects the tension between Trump’s promises to narrow a U.S. trade deficit with China that stood at $375.2 billion in goods last year and the ruling Communist Party’s development ambitions. Regulators use access to China’s vast market as leverage to press foreign automakers and other companies to help create or improve industries and technology.

President Donald Trump says the U.S. lost a trade war with China “years ago.”

In a tweet Wednesday after China’s announcement, Trump said: “We are not in a trade war with China, that war was lost many years ago by the foolish, or incompetent, people who represented the U.S.”

A list the U.S. issued Tuesday of products subject to tariff hikes included aerospace, telecoms and machinery, striking at high-tech industries seen by China’s leaders as the key to its economic future.

China said it would immediately challenge the U.S. move in the World Trade Organization.

“It must be said, we have been forced into taking this action,” a deputy commerce minister, Wang Shouwen, said at a news conference.

A deputy finance minister, Zhu Guangyao, appealed to Washington to “work in a constructive manner” and avoid hurting both countries.

Zhu warned against expecting Beijing to back down.

“Pressure from the outside will only urge and encourage the Chinese people to work even harder,” said Zhu at the news conference.

Companies and economists have expressed concern improved global economic activity might sputter if other governments are prompted to raise their own import barriers.

But Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross is brushing off concern over trade war with China. In an interview with CNBC Wednesday morning, Ross said that tariffs imposed by China amount to 0.3 percent of U.S. GDP and that some action on tariffs has been “coming for a while.”

Getty Images China unveiled plans Wednesday to hit major U.S. exports worth $50 billion such as soybeans, cars and small airplanes with retaliatory tariffs in an escalating trade duel between the world’s two top economies.