US-China trade war begins with tariffs on US$34 billion worth of Chinese goods
DHARAMSALA, July 6: US fires first shot while China vows to retaliate as the Trade war between US and China; the two largest economies in the world begins.
The trade war between the US and China got underway on Friday as the US imposed tariffs worth $34bn on Chinese goods while Beijing vows to retaliate, reports the Guardian
After three rounds of failed talks, the US tariffs went into effect at 12:01 Friday US time and within minutes China promised to levy its own tariffs immediately after on a similar quantity of US imports.
“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,” Chinese state media Xinhua quoted a spokesperson from China’s ministry of commerce as saying after the US announced its tariffs.
Prior to the imposition of tariffs by the US on Chinese goods, the Chinese state media has published a series of editorials criticising the US and highlighted Beijing’s readiness for a trade war, reports the Guardian
“If what the US wants is to escalate a trade war with China, then so be it. A little fighting may be the only way the Trump administration clears its mind and allows everyone to sober up,” Chinese state-run Global Times said on Friday.
Conversely, US President Donald Trump had threatened to target another US$400 billion in Chinese products with tariffs if Beijing continued to hit back.
Though China’s central banker estimates that the Friday’s tariff to be followed by $16bn in a few weeks would have a meagre cut of 0.2 percentage points off of China’s GDP, economists says that a trade war between the two largest economies in the world would hurt everyone and that Asia would suffer the biggest blow as their economies were deeply embedded in China’s supply chains.
