China announced on Friday that it would impose a 34% tariff on imports of all U.S. products starting April 10, as part of a series of retaliation measures for President Donald Trump’s Liberation Day.
The new tariffs match the U.S. “countdown” tariff rate for Chinese exports ordered this week 34%. Beijing’s commerce ministry also said it would impose more export controls on rare earths, materials used in high-tech products such as computer chips and electric vehicle batteries.
In addition, the Chinese government said it has added 27 companies to the list of companies subject to trade sanctions or export controls. Among them, 16 are prohibited from exporting “dual use” goods. A publicly traded transportation and logistics company High Point Aerotechnologies is a defense technology company, as well as listed publicly traded transportation and logistics companies.
Beijing also announced that it filed a lawsuit against the World Trade Organization over tariffs.
“The so-called ‘mutual tariffs’ have seriously violated WTO rules, seriously damaged the legitimate rights and interests of WTO members, and seriously undermined the rules-based multilateral trading system and the international economic and trade order,” the Ministry of Commerce said. “This is a typical unilateral bullying practice that endangers the stability of the global economic and trade order. China firmly opposes this.”
Front burner29:13Trump’s trade war globally
China’s tariffs on US coal and natural gas
In February, China announced a 15% import tariff on U.S. coal and liquefied natural gas products, adding 10% tariffs on crude oil, agricultural machinery and large-scale engine vehicles, respectively. According to a statement from the Treasury National Council Tariff Commission, the latest tariffs apply to all products made in the United States.
Trump’s latest tariffs on U.S. imports are growing, a compelling country and industry to scramble to gain a foothold and raise concerns about a global recession.
“Recent announcements will have a significant impact on the outlook for global trade and economic growth,” the World Trade Organization said in a statement Thursday. “Although situations are developing rapidly, our initial estimates suggest that these measures, along with measures introduced since the beginning of the year, could lead to an overall contraction of global commodity trade volume this year at about one percent, which is nearly four percentage points previously forecast.”
Despite the blow from major tariffs, it is an open question if other Asian countries can take advantage of the trade situation with the U.S. Washington attack on India, Bangladesh, Cambodia, Malaysia and Vietnam.
A few days after Trump announced the news, China, Japan and South Korea had their first conversation together in five years.
At the meeting, the country’s trade ministers agreed to speed up negotiations on the South Korea-China-China Free Trade Agreement Agreement Agreement to promote “regional and global trade.”
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