The trade war between the United States and China is declared

Washington – Beijing on Friday seized the World Trade Organization (WTO) to challenge the entry into force of US tariffs of 25% on 34 billion Chinese imports, saying the Trump administration responsible for triggering "the greatest commercial war in economic history".
  

China had promised " not to shoot the first " but warned: " to defend the fundamental interests of the country and its people ", she will be forced to retaliate .

After announcing the immediate implementation of tariffs of 25% on an amount " equal " on some 540 US products, the Ministry of Commerce announced Friday the recourse to the WTO.

This is not a new complaint but an addendum to the one filed by the Asian giant to challenge the imposition, last March, of the 25% punitive taxes on steel and 10% on aluminum, said a source in Geneva.

The new US tariffs, which came into effect on Friday, affect 818 Chinese products including automobiles, hard disks or aircraft components but save popular products like televisions and telephones.

A second batch of taxes on 16 billion imports will enter into force soon, said Thursday Donald Trump, referring to a delay of " two weeks ".

– " Buy Chinese " –

In total, it is $ 50 billion in annual Chinese imports that will be affected by US measures to compensate for what the Trump administration considers the " theft " of intellectual property and technology by China.

The United States should not stop there because Donald Trump threatens to increase to 450 billion the value of Chinese products taxed, the vast majority of imports from the Asian giant (505.6 billion dollars in 2017).

Paradoxically, it was these same trade tensions that brought down the US trade deficit in May to 43.1 billion, its lowest level since October 2016 by boosting soybean exports to China (+89, 6%) before this commodity is taxed.

For months, the prospect of a trade war, however, fears a halt to trade in goods across the planet, current engines of global growth.

Chinese Premier Li Keqiang, currently in Bulgaria, warned Friday that " trade war does not benefit anyone ".

In the streets of Beijing, consumers were also worried about possible price increases due to taxes on US products. However, they say they are in solidarity with the authorities.

" I will do my best to buy Chinese ", told AFP Mr. Yang, customer of a supermarket.

On the US side, the retailers' federation claimed that several products sold in the United States could see their prices go up, " students having to pay more for the mini-refrigerator they will need at the university in fall ".

– What consequences? –

This confrontation with Beijing is far from isolated. Since the beginning of the year, Donald Trump has increased protectionist measures against its trading partners, causing exasperation and concern.

Since June 1, the White House has also imposed tariffs on imports of steel and aluminum from Canada, the European Union, Mexico or Russia that brought the case the WTO.

In the wake of these same countries, Moscow announced Friday the introduction of surcharges on a series of US products in response to customs barriers imposed on steel and aluminum.

The majority of experts warn of the potential damage of such a policy, not only to the US economy but also to the global economy.

The imposition of reciprocal taxes " will weigh on growth, confidence (households) and financial markets reacted Friday economists Oxford Economics.

In recent weeks, American companies have warned that they could dismiss because they do not remain competitive or even go out of business.

These warnings left marble behind Donald Trump, who had swept the arguments Tuesday in a tweet. " The economy is probably doing much better than in the past, before we settled the problem of unfair trade agreements with each country ," he said.

On the Chinese side, " the trade war will slow the growth of the Chinese GDP by 0.2 percentage point " in 2018, said an official of the Central Bank, judging however the impact " limited ".