China announces $3bn target for retaliation in trade dispute with US

China said Friday that it planned to raise tariffs on a $3 billion list of USA goods, including pork, apples and steel pipes in response to the steel and aluminum duties earlier announced by Trump.

“I don’t think unilateral tariffs imposed by the United States, not even in collaboration with its closest allies in Western Europe, are going to force China to make these drastic changes to its industrial structures”.

The U.S. has conducted a seven-month investigation into the tactics China has used to challenge American supremacy in technology.

The typical American corporation that wants to go to China and sell its goods into the Chinese market is on the horns of a dilemma. Last year, the two countries exchanged $636 billion worth of goods, and American companies such as Boeing and Caterpillar depend heavily on the Chinese market.

Lou was speaking at the annual China Development Forum in Beijing.

“We are interested in creating some motivation for China to actually take concrete actions to further open their markets to U.S. exports”, the official said on condition of anonymity, adding that the two sides are constantly talking.

“I hope that people here will realise that people in China and in other developing countries are also fully capable of innovation”, he said in a message on Facebook.

The United States has flouted trade rules with an inquiry into intellectual property and China will defend its interests, Vice Premier Liu He told U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin in a telephone call on Saturday, Chinese state media reported. “By some calculations, every billion dollar of trade deficit that arises from market-distorted policies, costs us about 6,000 jobs”. It calls for creating Chinese competitors in electric cars, robots, artificial intelligence and other fields.

The latest proposed Chinese tariffs would add a 25 percent charge on pork and aluminum scrap, mirroring Trump’s 25 percent duty on steel, according to the Commerce Ministry.

Those goods include 128 USA agricultural and steel products including fruit, wine, pork, steel pipes and recycled aluminium.

Chinese purchases of those goods a year ago totaled $3 billion, the ministry said. To avoid paying the tariffs on the steel or aluminum they import, businesses will need to show that American mills don’t make the piece they use, or at least don’t make enough.

But, for India, macro risks are rising “even though the economy has some buffers”, pointed out Radhika Rao, India Economist, DBS Bank, adding that in the immediate term “sentiments and the rupee remain susceptible to U.S. monetary policy trajectory and trade war concerns”. “We can’t let that happen”, he said.

Earlier, German Chancellor Angela Merkel warned that the EU would respond firmly if the United States did not exempt European steel and aluminum. Washington reports different figures that put the gap at a record $375.2 billion. “Our country must stand up against China’s trade blackmail, so I am encouraged that the administration is focused on protecting the technologies that China publicly targeted”, Wyden said.

Ultimately, for the WTO, the key question is how other countries respond to the USA, according to Francois.

That’s why the administration initially announced that its steel and aluminum tariffs would apply worldwide.

President Donald Trump is imposing new tariffs of 25 percent on imported steel and 10 percent on aluminum. However, officials have promised to continue to open Chinese markets to foreign companies.