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China have hit back at United States President Donald Trump’s tariffs on Chinese exports with 84 per cent levies on its imports from America, intensifying the trade war between the top two economies of the world.
The hike in levies, up from 34 per cent, came hours after Trump’s explosive new tariffs on 60 countries, including 104 per cent on China, came into effect after midnight Wednesday US time.
Trump’s threat of the additional 50 per cent tariffs on China on Monday came after Beijing refused to withdraw the 34 per cent tariffs on US goods by Tuesday, which it had announced to retaliate Trump’s 34 per cent levy on Chinese goods announced last week.
China will hike the additional tariffs on products imported from the United States to 84 per cent effective Thursday, state-run Xinhua news agency reported quoting the Customs Tariff Commission of the State Council’s announcement on Wednesday.
The announcement follows the US decision to raise the reciprocal tariffs on Chinese imports from 34 per cent to 84 per cent, a move that is ‘going further down the wrong path and seriously infringes on China’s legitimate rights and interests’, according to the Commission.
China has filed a lawsuit against the US with the World Trade Organisation’s (WTO) dispute settlement mechanism following the latest US tariff hikes.
The US additional tariff measures seriously violate WTO rules, a spokesperson of the Commerce Ministry said, responding to the additional tariff announcement by the US on Chinese goods over and above the earlier reciprocal tariffs.
The imposition of additional 50 per cent tariffs is a grave mistake on top of an existing one and highlights the unilateral bullying nature of the US actions, the spokesperson said.
Additionally, China added six US firms to its unreliable entity list, the country’s Commerce Ministry announced on Wednesday.
These companies, in disregard of strong opposition from China, have in recent years either participated in arms sales to Taiwan or engaged in so-called military technology cooperation with Taiwan, seriously undermining China’s national sovereignty, security and development interests, a spokesperson for the ministry said, Xinhua reported.
