China fires back with tariffs on another $75 billion of U.S. goods
China is hiking tariffs on $75 billion of U.S. products, it said on Friday, deepening a trade war that threatens to tip the global economy into recession. The move comes in retaliation for President Donald Trump's planned increase.
The tariffs of 10% and 5% take effect on two batches of goods on September 1 and December 15, the official Xinhua News Agency said. It gave no details of what goods would be affected but the timing matches Mr. Trump's planned duty hikes.
The list of more than 5,000 U.S. products includes agricultural products, crude oil, small aircraft and cars, Reuters reported.
In a statement, China said it plans to boost tariffs on U.S. car imports to 25% on Dec. 15 from their current levels of 15%.
"Since the trade war started last year China has retaliated each time after the U.S. imposed tariffs," Goldman Sachs analysts wrote in a research note. "It could be argued that not doing anything in retaliation might be in the interests of the Chinese economy, but we believe this would be not acceptable politically."
The spiraling conflict over China's trade surplus and technology ambitions has fueled concern among companies and investors that it might drag down already weakening global economic growth.
Mr. Trump previously announced plans to raise tariffs on an additional $300 billion of Chinese goods after talks broke down in May. He then postponed some tariffs until December 15 and took certain items off the tariff list, including Bibles.
China's government appealed to Mr. Trump this week to compromise in order to break a deadlock in negotiations.
