tax increase on US products

New chapter of the Beijing-Washington trade war: China announced yesterday that it would increase its import tariffs on US products worth $ 60 billion a year, in retaliation for the measures adopted last week by Donald Trump. Bags all over the world have fallen again.

As of June 1, the applied rates will be 10%, 20% and even up to 25% on a set of US products already taxed, announced the Bureau of the Tariff Commission of the Chinese government.

The new negotiations to end the bilateral trade war, presented as the last opportunity, ended last week in Washington without an agreement between the two powers.

US President Trump on Friday approved, as a punitive measure, a 10% to 25% jump in import duties on Chinese products worth $ 200,000 million a year. He also threatened to tax the remaining 300 billion Chinese imports.

The Chinese government has repeatedly promised in recent days to take "necessary retaliatory measures".

Trump's reaction on Monday in a tweet was threatening: "China should not react, it would only make the situation worse!"

However, the Chinese government has affirmed its determination.

China does not back down

"China will never give in to external pressure, we have the determination and the ability to defend our rights and legitimate interests," Foreign Ministry Spokesman Geng Shuang said yesterday.

"We reiterated that the increase in tariffs would not solve any problem," he said at a press conference during which he pleaded for "a mutually beneficial agreement" of two countries.

Before the measures announced yesterday by Beijing, almost all US products were already overloaded in China.

This has affected an amount of $ 110,000 million out of an annual total of 120,000 million imports from the United States.

Wall Street reacted to the news with falls of about 2%. Major European stock markets suffered significant losses: Paris lost 1.22%, Frankfurt lost 1.52% and Madrid 0.78%. In addition, London sold 0.55% and was 7 163.68 points. Madrid is down 0.78% and ends at 9.046 points. While Milan dropped by 1.35% and closed at 20,594 points.

Chronology of the conflict

January 2018. The US imposes tariffs on solar panels and washing machines imported from around the world.

March 2018. The United States imposes tariffs on imports of steel and aluminum from around the world.

April 2018. China reacts by pricing 120 types of US products worth $ 3,000 million.

August 2018. The United States is announcing tariffs on more than $ 16 billion worth of Chinese products. Beijing counter-attack with tariffs equivalent to an additional $ 16 billion on products imported from the United States.

September 2018. Washington adds 10% tariff on a list of Chinese products for 200 billion. Beijing reacts by imposing tariffs on 60 000 million dollars on American products.

May 2019. The White House increases rates by 25%. Yesterday, Beijing announced retaliation with a tariff increase of 10% to 20-25%.