Admin l Wednesday, April 04, 2018
BEIJING – China today imposed higher tarrifs on 106 U.S products in retaliation to the decision of the United States to impose very high tarrifs on 103 Chinese goods. The President Donald Trump-led administration had on Tuesday published a list of about 1,300 Chinese exports that could be targeted for tariffs.
The United States said it will apply the tariffs to about $50 billion worth of goods to punish China for its theft of trade secrets, including software, patents and other technology. The United States is increasing the tariff by 25% for all the 1, 300 products.
But in a tweet, Trump said the US is 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. Now we have a Trade Deficit of $500 Billion a year, with Intellectual Property Theft of another $300 Billion. We cannot let this continue”, he said.
However, China decided to reciprocate the U. S move by unveiling a list of 106 US products worth 50 billion U.S. Dollars imported from the United States, including soy bean, automobiles and chemical products.
The tariffs from China were imposed by the Customs Tariff Commission of the State Council. The 106 items of products are grouped under 14 categories, the Ministry of Finance (MOF) said in a statement on its website.
The date of implementation will depend on when the U.S. government imposes the tariffs on Chinese products, the MOF said, adding that the U.S. move was “an evident violation of relevant rules of the World Trade Organization (WTO).”
The U.S. move “severely infringed on the legitimate rights and interests that China enjoys in accordance with the WTO rules, and threatened China’s economic interests and security,” the MOC said.
