BEIJING (Reuters) — China said on Friday it will place additional tariffs of 34% on all US goods as part of countermeasures against duties imposed this week by President Donald Trump, deepening an escalating trade war.
The additional tariffs on US products would be imposed from April 10, China’s foreign ministry said.
Trump on Wednesday announced that China would be hit with a 34% tariff, on top of the 20% he imposed earlier this year, bringing the total new levies to 54%.
The retaliatory measures also included curbs on the export of some rare earths and the addition of US firms to Beijing’s “unreliable entities” and export control lists.
Agriculture trade took another hit as Chinese customs authorities placed an immediate suspension on imports of sorghums from grain exporter C&D (USA) Inc., as well as on poultry and bonemeal from three US firms.
“The market, of course, is extremely surprised by China’s aggressive retaliatory actions. I don’t think many investors were anticipating such a sudden and large response in terms of the percentages of the tariffs back at the United States, so that certainly has set the market, which has already been wobbly, to be even more uncertain,” Peter Andersen, founder of Andersen Capital Management, told Reuters.
The controls on exports of medium and heavy rare-earths, including samarium, gadolinium, terbium, dysprosium, lutetium, scandium and yttrium to the United States, will be effective April 4.
“The purpose of the Chinese government’s implementation of export controls on relevant items in accordance with the law is to better safeguard national security and interests, and to fulfil international obligations such as non-proliferation,” the commerce ministry said in a statement.
The commerce ministry added 16 US entities to its export control list, which prohibits the export of dual-use items to the named firms.
Meanwhile, another 11 US firms were added to the “unreliable entities” list, which allows Beijing to take punitive action against foreign entities. Those firms include Skydio Inc. and BRINC Drones, targeted over arms sales to democratically governed Taiwan, which China claims as part of its territory.
The commerce ministry said the targeted companies seriously “undermined” China’s national sovereignty, security and development interests and would be prohibited from new investments, import and export activities in China.
It also launched an anti-dumping probe into imports of certain medical CT tubes from the US and India, and a wider industry competitiveness investigation into imports of medical CT tubes.
(Reporting by Mei Mei Chu, Ethan Wang, Shi Bu and Xiuhao Chen; editing by Mark Heinrich and Alex Richardson)
