China and the United States they are fighting the "biggest commercial war of history"

The United States on Friday announced tariffs of tens of billions of dollars on many Chinese products, prompting an immediate retaliation from Beijing, which denounced "the biggest trade war in the world." 39, economic history ". At 00:00 in Washington (23:00 Thursday in Peru) punitive tariffs decided by US President Donald Trump on a total of 34,000 million dollars came into effect. Chinese imports which include automobiles, hard disks or aircraft components.

China reacted immediately and declared that it was "obliged to take the necessary countermeasures" to defend "the fundamental interests of the country and its people", said the Chinese Ministry of Commerce in a statement. Beijing did not provide details on the amount and nature of its measures, although the official agency Xinhua stated that had been hit with "additional customs duties". " on American products.

Xi Jinping's government also accused Washington of launching "the greatest commercial war of economic history" with the imposition of these new tariffs and denounced that "the United States violated the rules of the World Trade Organization (WTO) ". Chinese Premier Li Keqiang warned the United States on Friday that a trade war "does not benefit anyone" .

Trump imposed duties of 25% on some 818 Chinese products A second batch of tariffs, worth 16 billion and under review by the commercial representative ( USTR) Robert Lighthizer, will come into effect soon, said the US President, who spoke of a period of "two weeks". "If a country wants to raise tariffs, China will respond to defend itself. A trade war does not benefit anyone because it undermines free trade and the multilateral process," said Mr. Li in Sofia, where he will participate in a summit. countries of the European Union and the Balkans.

A "theft"

In total, it will be $ 50 billion of Chinese annual imports that will be affected by these measures, designed to compensate for what Trump regards as "theft" "Intellectual property and technology by China. But Washington could go further . Donald Trump asked Robert Lighthizer "to identify $ 200 billion worth of Chinese goods for additional duties of 10%".

These measures could therefore bring to $ 450 billion the value of the Chinese taxed goods, ie the vast majority of the imports that arrive in the United States from the Asian giant ($ 505,600 million in 2017) . The entry into force of the tariffs marks the failure of the months of negotiations between the two largest economies in the world, and occurs at times when important voices of the industry warn against the domestic consequences In the United States

Washington accuses China of being appropriate for vanguard patents either by obligations to US companies to operate in the Chinese market, or simply by theft . Last year, the US trade deficit with China reached nothing less than $ 372,200 million a figure that unleashes Trump's anger.

[19459007AFP