Beijing: In a tit-for-tat move, China has said that it will impose 15 per cent tariff on coal, LNG products, 10 per cent on crude oil, and other products in response to US President Donald Trump's tariffs, AP reported. In addition, the Asian nation also launched an investigation into Google over alleged antitrust violations.
While Trump delayed his plans to impose 25 per cent tariffs on Mexico and Canada just hours before they were set to take effect, the tariff war with China escalated.
“The US’s unilateral tariff increase seriously violates the rules of the World Trade Organisation. It is not only unhelpful in solving its own problems, but also damages normal economic and trade cooperation between China and the US,” the official statement reads.
This move follows the implementation of the USA's 10 per cent tariffs on Chinese imports with President Donald Trump citing Beijing’s failure to curb the flow of illegal drugs into the US. The tariff that Trump ordered on China was set to go into effect on February 4, though he planned to talk with Chinese President Xi Jinping in the next few days, the AP report said.
The offshore yuan fell 0.3 per cent to 7.3340 in the afternoon as China imposed tariffs on some US goods on February 4, Bloomberg reported. Currencies tied to China’s economy also declined. The Australian and New Zealand dollars fell by at least 0.8 per cent.
Earlier Beijing, while criticizing Trump's tariffs, said it "may be forced to take countermeasures" and stressed that there is "no winner in a trade war".
