US, China fire first salvoes in trade war
Beijing retaliates as Trump slaps £34bn tariffs on imports
The US - China trade war began in earnest on Friday as the US imposed tariffs on £34bn of Chinese goods with Beijing retaliating in similar fashion.
The levy kicked in at midnight Washington time. Shortly after, Beijing hit back with tariffs on 545 imported US products worth the same as the US penalties.
“China promised not to fire the first shot, but in order to safeguard the country’s core interests as well as that of the people, it is forced to fight back,” the Xinhua news agency cited a ministry of commerce official as saying.
US President Donald Trump has already imposed tariffs on washing machines and solar panels. He also penalised imports of steel and aluminium from the European Union, Mexico and Canada.
Trump showed no signs of backing down as he threatened overnight to increase tariffs to $500bn.
"You have another 16 [billion dollars] in two weeks, and then, as you know, we have $200bn in abeyance and then after the $200bn, we have $300bn in abeyance. OK? So we have 50 plus 200 plus almost 300," he said.
With Friday's US measures expected to be followed by further tariffs on $16bn of Chinese goods in a few weeks, Beijing said this would shave 0.2 percentage points off of China’s GDP and the “overall impact would be limited”.
The ministry called the US actions “a violation of world trade rules” and said that it had “initiated the largest-scale trade war in economic history.”