China has announced a slew of countermeasures against tariffs imposed by United States President Donald Trump, including additional tariffs of 34 percent on all goods and curbs on the export of some rare earths, deepening an escalating trade war.
Trump on Wednesday announced that China would be hit with a 34 percent tariff, on top of the 20 percent he imposed earlier this year, bringing the total new levies to 54 percent.
On Friday, China’s Ministry of Finance said the additional tariffs would be imposed from April 10.
Beijing has previously imposed tariffs of 15 percent on imports of coal and liquefied natural gas (LNG) from the US in retaliation for Washington’s 10 percent levies on Chinese goods. Beijing also announced controls on exports of medium and heavy rare earths, including samarium, gadolinium, terbium, dysprosium, lutetium, scandium and yttrium to the US, effective from April 4.
“The purpose of the Chinese government’s implementation of export controls on relevant items in accordance with the law is to better safeguard national security and interests, and to fulfil international obligations such as non-proliferation,” the Ministry of Commerce said in a statement.
China also added 16 US entities to its export control list, which bans the export of dual-use items to affected firms.
Another 11 US firms were added to the “unreliable entities” list, which allows Beijing to take punitive action against foreign entities. The targeted firms includes Skydio Inc and BRINC Drones over arms sales to democratically governed Taiwan, which China claims as part of its territory.
China also said it had opened a formal complaint against the new US tariffs with the World Trade Organization on Friday, saying the measures violate WTO rules and requesting consultations.
“China has filed the WTO complaint with respect to the United States’ measures,” the Permanent Mission of China to the World Trade Organization said in a statement. The new tariffs blatantly violate WTO rules, it added.
The Chinese Commerce Ministry said the targeted companies seriously “undermined” China’s national sovereignty, security and development interests and would be banned from new investments, import and export activities in China.
Agriculture trade also took another hit as Chinese customs imposed an immediate suspension on imports of sorghums from grain exporter C&D (USA) Inc, as well as poultry and bonemeal from three US firms.
Beijing also launched an anti-dumping probe into imports of certain medical CT tubes from the US and India, and a wider industry competitiveness investigation into imports of medical CT tubes.
US stock futures fell sharply on Friday, signalling more losses on Wall Street, as the Trump administration’s sweeping levies knocked $2.4 trillion from US equities. Shares of Big Tech stocks fell in premarket trading, with companies such as Apple and Nvidia having big exposure to China and Taiwan for manufacturing their products.
In Japan, a top US trading partner, Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba said the tariffs had created a “national crisis” as a plunge in banking shares on Friday set Tokyo’s stock market on course for its worst week in years. European shares were also headed for the biggest weekly loss in three years.
But US Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Friday disputed any economic crash, telling reporters that markets were reacting to the change and would adjust.
“Their economies are not crashing. Their markets are reacting to a dramatic change in the global order in terms of trade,” he said at a media conference in Brussels. “The markets will adjust.”
By Aljazeera
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