Key points
- China’s tariffs on imports total around $14bn
- Chinese tariffs took effect on Monday
- Trump paused tariffs plan on Canada and Mexico last week
BEIJING: China hit the US on Monday with tariffs on imports totaling an estimated around $14 billion while US President Donald Trump promised new duties on metal products from across the world, marking the latest escalations in an intensifying trade war.
According to the financial newspaper Nikkei Asia, while Trump paused an earlier plan to slap 25 per cent tariffs on Canada and Mexico last week, he went ahead with an additional 10 per cent blanket penalty on China’s exports to the United States, which totaled as much as $525 billion last year according to Chinese customs.
China wasted no time announcing 10-15 per cent levies in return — albeit only on a list of targeted products.
Trade war
AFP reported that Chinese tariffs on a range of US fruit, vegetables, and other pantry staples took effect on Monday but locals at Beijing market largely shrugged off the escalating trade war.
The levies of 10 and 15 per cent on American agricultural products, which also include meat, grains, and cotton, were imposed after US President Donald Trump raised a blanket tariff on all Chinese goods to 20 per cent last week, according to AFP.
Vendors in a downtown market said they were not worried about sales despite the potential for higher prices at the check-out.
“If prices go up, folks would not eat imported stuff,” a fruit seller, surnamed Shi, told AFP.
“There will be more domestic goods sold, and I think this is something folks can accept.”
Thailand and Malaysia
Shi’s offerings — from bananas and strawberries to durian and mangosteen — come from across the world, but he said fruit grown within China typically sells better.
“The freshness of our domestic products is greater than imported stuff,” the 31-year-old said.
Shi said he might sell fewer US varieties while offering more options from other countries, such as Thailand and Malaysia.
Fruit seller Shi said that, while levies were being put in place by both sides, the trade war would be “better for China” because domestic goods would “become more powerful”.
In the short term, though, he acknowledged that everyday budgets might be hit.
“You still need to buy what you need at home,” he said.
“Indeed, it’s regular people who suffer the most.”
