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China will impose retaliatory tariffs on $60 billion of American-made goods, hitting back at the U.S. just hours after President Donald Trump announced a massive escalation in tariffs on $200 billion in imported goods from Beijing.
The Chinese Finance Ministry announced Tuesday it would go ahead with plans announced in August to tax 5,207 types of U.S. imports, ranging from coffee to farm machinery. The smaller, mismatched dollar amount reflects the fact that China is running out of American goods to tax, due to its trade imbalance.
The new round of tariffs is aimed at curbing “trade friction” and the “unilateralism and protectionism of the United States,” the ministry said on its website.
The new tariffs, levied at a rate of 5 percent and 10 percent, will come into effect on Sept. 24 — the date Trump laid out for his latest round of punitive tariffs.
Trump has repeatedly said his goal is to force partners to the table to renegotiate current trade deals that he and his supporters view as unfair to American economic and security interests. Foreign businesses have long complained that China’s protectionist policies are pushing them out of promising economic opportunities.
The Chinese Commerce Ministry said Tuesday it had been forced to react because the U.S. was creating an “economic emergency.”
Economists have warned that the escalating battle could knock up to 0.5 percentage points off global economic growth through 2020.