Supervisor Elham AbolFateh
Editor in Chief Mohamed Wadie

More than 4,000 Items to be Affected by China Tariffs


Tue 14 May 2019 | 02:05 PM
Yassmine Elsayed

As tensions mount, China is striking back at the United States during a trade war between the world's two biggest economies.

Beijing announced today that it will increase tariffs on roughly $60 billion worth of US goods on June 1, including American cotton, machinery, grains and aircraft parts. More than 4,000 items are affected, most of which will carry tariffs of 25% — up from 10% when they were first levied last September.

According to CNN, the move follows Friday's increase in US tariffs on $200 billion worth of Chinese exports from 10% to 25%. The Trump administration, which has accused China of backtracking on previous trade commitments, sought to turn up the pressure on Beijing after months of talks failed to produce a breakthrough.

US and Chinese negotiators ended another round of talks on Friday without an agreement to resolve American concerns on market access and intellectual property theft.

Meanwhile, the Trump administration has begun the process to apply tariffs of 25% to the remaining $300 billion worth of goods China exports to the United States.

On other hand, the trade dispute, which began last July, has hurt Chinese exporters, damaged companies on both sides and slowed global growth.

Apple partially blamed the trade war for a revenue decline in the first three months of 2019, and construction company Caterpillar said that Chinese tariffs cost it more than $100 million in 2018.

The latest actions are poised to make things worse. Experts have said that tariff hikes could hit growth in both economies, and that Beijing may be forced to step in with new stimulus measures.

Global markets have also been whipsawed by the trade fight. The Dow on Monday fell by more than 600 points.