Beijing: China on Monday imposed tariffs on 128 US imports worth $3 billion, including fruit and pork, retaliating for US duties on steel and aluminium that Beijing said “seriously infringed” Chinese interests.
The move, which was decided by the customs tariff commission of the State Council, followed weeks of rhetoric that has raised fears of a trade war between the world’s two biggest economies. China’s commerce ministry on Monday called the reasoning behind US hike in tariff an “abuse” of World Trade Organisation (WTO) guidelines.
The US measures “are directed only at a few countries, seriously violating the principle of non-discrimination as a cornerstone of the multilateral trading system, that seriously infringed the interests of the Chinese side,” said a statement on the commerce ministry website.
Beijing had warned in March that it was considering the tariffs of 15 per cent and 25 per cent on a range of products that also include wine, nuts and aluminium scrap. They came into force on Monday, Xinhua said, citing a government statement.
The levies are in response to tariffs of 10 per cent on aluminium and 25 per cent on steel that have also angered US allies. “We hope that the US can withdraw measures that violate WTO rules as soon as possible to put trade in the relevant products between China and the US back on a normal track,” the commerce ministry statement said.
“Cooperation between China and the US, the world's two largest economies, is the only correct choice.” The White House has unveiled plans to impose new tariffs on some $60 billion of Chinese imports over the “theft” of intellectual property.
Chinese Vice Premier Liu He, the top economic official, told US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin in a phone call last month that the IP investigation violated international trade rules and Beijing was “ready to defend its naitonal interests”.
