Trade War: China Slams Tariffs On US Cars, Others

Trade War: China Slams Tariffs On US Cars, Others

China on Friday announced plans to retaliate against the Trump administration with new tariffs on roughly $75 billion worth of US products including cars.

The tariffs would take effect in two separate batches, on September 1 and December 15.

The new regime of tariffs came after President Donald Trump said this month he would slap tariffs on all remaining imports from China on those dates.

The US has since announced it would temporarily halt duties on a portion of those products.

But Trump advisers said that move wasn’t meant to be a concession to China and was instead meant to shield American shoppers from the effects of tariffs during the holiday shopping season.

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“Despite the US decision to delay tariffs on some Chinese goods …. if the United States rides roughshod over China’s opposition and impose any new tariffs, China will be forced to adopt retaliatory actions,” Ministry of Commerce spokesperson Gao Feng told reporters Thursday.

Reuters reported the immediate impact of the Chinese retaliatory tariffs.

It said all major European stock bourses turned negative and trade-sensitive stocks slid sharply after the announced plans to slap import tariffs on more U.S. goods, escalating the protracted spat between the world’s top two economies.

Beijing said the new tariffs would apply to about $75 billion worth of U.S. goods.

The pan-European STOXX 600 was down 0.3% and the export-heavy German blue-chip index .GDAXI was down 0.9% at 1227 GMT. Both indexes were trading in positive territory before the tariff announcement at 1200 GMT.

Mining companies and semiconductor makers were among the worst hit. Shares in Austrian sensor maker AMS (AMS.VI) fell 4%, STMicroelectronics slid 3.2% and Infineon (IFXGn.DE) 2.6%.