The US and China are moving closer to a trade war after President Donald Trump approved a 25 percent tariffs on US$50 billion worth of Chinese imports. Beijing immediately threatened to retaliate with measures “of the same scale”.
The White House said in a statement that the tariffs will be imposed on goods that “contain industrially significant technologies”.
“My great friendship with President Xi [Jinping] of China and our country’s relationship with China are both very important to me,” said Trump. “Trade between our nations, however, has been very unfair, for a very long time.
He said the US will no longer tolerate “losing our technology and intellectual property through unfair economic practices.”
Soon afterwards, the Chinese commerce ministry said in a statement that China strongly opposed the latest action taken by the US which it said would disrupt the world trade order. “We will immediately introduce tariff measures of the same scale and strength. All the results from the negotiations previously reached by the two parties will be invalid,” the statement said.