China retaliates with additional tariffs of USD 16 billion on US products

The Trump administration said today it was moving ahead with a stiff 25 per cent tariff on additional USD 16 billion worth of imports from China, intensifying a trade war between the two economic giants.

China has decided to impose additional duties of 25 per cent on the USD 16-billion products after making proper adjustments to the second part of a list of the products subject to the tariffs, state-run Xinhua news agency reported.

The additional duties will take effect from August 23.

The Ministry of Commerce announced late today that the latest move was directed against the US decision to impose 25 per cent tariffs on an additional USD 16 billion worth of imports from China.

The US' move has again unreasonably put domestic law above international law. China will implement the tariff measure with the US simultaneously, it said.

China will impose a tariff on 333 categories of US products, including coal, bicycles, trucks and vehicle engines and chemicals, the Customs Tariff Commission of the central cabinet said late today.

The ministry's announcement came after the Office of the US Trade Representative (USTR) announced that it will collect 25 per cent tariffs on an additional USD 16 billion in Chinese imports starting on August 23.

The Office of the US Trade Representative yesterday released a final tariff list targeting 279 product lines from China.

Only five product items were deleted from what the USTR initially proposed on June 15. Semiconductors, among the largest categories, remain on the list, a state-run China Daily report said.

Other products that will be subject to the hefty duties include electronic integrated circuits, motorcycles and railway and farm equipment.

On August 3, China slapped additional tariffs of four different rates on about USD 60 billion worth of products from US in retaliation to President Donald Trump's plan to raise tariffs on USD 200 billion on Chinese goods.

The trade war between the world's largest economies was sparked off by Trump who continued to pile up pressure on Beijing by impose tariffs on Chinese products to force China to reduce the trade deficit which amounted to over USD 375 billion last year in about total bilateral trade of USD 636 billion.