BEIJING/WASHINGTON: The US and China headed to a full-blown trade war Tuesday with Beijing vowing to fight America’s “blackmail” to the end and retaliate against Donald Trump’s threat to impose an additional 50 per cent tariff. If Trump executes the additional tariff, the total tariffs on goods imported into the United States from China would be 104 per cent.
China is ready to fight to the end if the United States is bent on waging a tariff war or trade war, a Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lin Jian said responding to Trump’s threat to impose an additional 50 per cent tariff on Chinese imports. Reacting to Trump’s threat, China’s Commerce Ministry on Tuesday said China will never accept the “blackmail nature” of the US and vowed to fight against tariffs “to the end”.
“The US threat to escalate tariffs against China is a mistake on top of a mistake, which once again exposes the US’ blackmailing nature,” a ministry spokesperson said on Tuesday. “If the US insists on going its own way, China will fight it to the end. If the US escalates its tariff measures, China will resolutely take countermeasures to safeguard its own rights and interests.
Lin said “let me stress once again that trade wars and tariffs have no winners and protectionism has no way out” “The Chinese people never create trouble nor do we fear trouble”, he said, adding that “pressuring threatening and exhorting China is not the right way to engage with us.” China will do what is necessary to firmly safeguard our legitimate and lawful rights and interests, he said.
“If the US insists on waging the tariffs war and trade war regardless of the interests of both the countries and the international community, China will play along to the end,” he told a media briefing here responding to questions about Trump’s new tariff threat. Trump on Monday threatened the new 50 per cent duty on China, effective Wednesday, if Beijing does not withdraw its 34 per cent tariffs on all US goods by Tuesday, which China imposed in retaliation for a 34 per cent levy on Chinese goods the Trump administration announced last week.
It appears the world’s two largest economies are headed to a no-holds-barred trade war as Trump earlier warned China that its exports to the US totalling USD 438.9 billion would face an additional 50 per cent tariff unless it removed the retaliatory levies of 34 per cent imposed on American goods in response similar tariffs slapped by him. China retaliated with 34 per cent additional tariffs on the USD 143 billion US exports. The US trade deficit with China last year totalled USD 295.4 billion, according to official figures.
If Beijing presses ahead, analysts say it would badly hurt China’s exports to the US which is its third major trade destination after ASEAN and EU.
Economists warned that Trump’s trade could impact China’s GDP by two to 2.5 percentage points further affecting the Chinese economy which is struggling with a slowdown.
Trump’s threat to impose an additional 50 per cent tariff would raise levies on Chinese exports to an unprecedented 104 per cent. In his social media post Truth Social on Monday, Trump hit out at China for retaliating his additional tariffs “on top of their already record setting Tariffs, Non-Monetary Tariffs, Illegal Subsidisation of companies, and massive long term Currency Manipulation” despite his warnings against such actions.
Soon after taking office in January, Trump imposed a 20 per cent additional tariff on Chinese imports for failing to combat the illegal flow fentanyl, a potent opioid drug blamed for widespread drug addiction in America. Chinese Commerce Ministry called President Trump’s threat of an additional 50 per cent levy on China-made goods “a mistake on top of a mistake”.
China will resolutely take countermeasures to safeguard its rights and interests should the US escalate its tariff measures, a spokesperson of the Ministry here said. The US’ so-called “reciprocal tariffs” against China are groundless and a typical practice of unilateral bullying, the spokesperson said, state-run Xinhua reported.
Defending China’s retaliatory tariffs, the spokesperson said they are entirely legitimate actions aimed at protecting China’s sovereignty, security, and development interests, as well as maintaining a normal international trade order. The US tariff escalation threat against China compounds its mistake and further exposes its nature of blackmail, which China will never accept, the spokesperson said.
“China will fight till the end if the US side is bent on going down the wrong path,” the spokesperson noted. Elaborating China’s stand Lin said “what the US has done does not reflect its willingness to engage in sincere dialogue. If the US really wants to engage in talks it should show an attitude of equality, respect and mutual benefit, he said. “If the US decides to not care about…China and the rest of the world and is determined to fight its tariff and trade war, China will respond till the end,” he said.
