US-China trade war escalates as new tariffs kick in

The United States and China escalated their acrimonious trade war today, implementing punitive 25% tariffs on US$16 billion (RM65.6 billion) worth of each other’s goods, even as mid-level officials from both sides resumed talks in Washington.

The world’s two largest economies have now slapped tit-for-tat tariffs on a combined US$100 billion of products since early July, with more in the pipeline, adding to risks to global economic growth.

China’s Commerce Ministry said Washington was “remaining obstinate” by implementing the latest tariffs, which kicked in on both sides as scheduled at 12.01pm in Beijing (11.01pm Malaysian time).

“China resolutely opposes this, and will continue to take necessary countermeasures,” it said in a brief statement, adding that Beijing will file a complaint over the latest tariffs with the World Trade Organisation.

US President Donald Trump has threatened to put duties on almost all of the more than US$500 billion of Chinese goods exported to the US annually unless Beijing agrees to sweeping changes to its intellectual property practices, industrial subsidy programmes and tariff structures, and buys more US goods.

That figure would be far more than China imports from the US, raising concerns that Beijing could consider other forms of retaliation, such as making life more difficult for American firms in China or allowing its yuan currency to weaken further to support its exporters.

Economists reckon that every US$100 billion of imports hit by tariffs would reduce global trade by around 0.5%.

The tariffs took effect amid two days of talks in Washington between mid-level officials from both sides.

Washington’s latest tariffs apply to 279 product categories including semiconductors, plastics, chemicals and railway equipment that the Office of the US Trade Representative has said benefit from Beijing’s “Made in China 2025” industrial plan to make China competitive in high-tech industries.

China’s list of 333 US product categories hit with duties includes coal, copper scrap, fuel, steel products, buses and medical equipment.