China hits back with 34% tariffs on US goods

 

China has announced a slew of countermeasures in a deepening trade war with the US, which imposed tariffs amounting to 54% on Chinese products. (Wikipedia pic)

BEIJING: 

China has announced a slew of countermeasures against tariffs imposed by US president Donald Trump, including additional tariffs of 34% on all US goods, and curbs on the export of some rare earths, deepening an escalating trade war.

China’s finance ministry said the additional tariffs would be imposed from April 10.

Trump announced on Wednesday that China would be hit with a 34% tariff, on top of the 20% he imposed earlier this year, bringing the total new levies to 54%.

Agriculture trade took another hit as Chinese customs imposed an immediate suspension on imports of sorghums from a US grain exporter as well as poultry and bonemeal from three US firms.

New controls were announced on exports of medium and heavy rare earths, including samarium, gadolinium, terbium, dysprosium, lutetium, scandium and yttrium to the US from today (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 commerce ministry said in a statement.

It also added 16 US entities to its export control list, which prohibits the export of dual-use items to affected firms, and 11 other 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 is part of its territory.

The commerce ministry said the targeted companies seriously “undermined” China’s national sovereignty, security and development interests and would be prohibited from new investments, import and export activities in the republic.

It 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. - FMT