The United States will impose a 25 percent tariff on $ 50 billion worth of Chinese exports, Donald Trump said on Friday (June 15th).
This is another move announced by the US President in the run-up to the elections, through which he is trying to "punish" China for "stealing" American technology and trade secrets. The new tariffs will be imposed on about 1.100 exports and will target the Chinese aerospace, robotics, manufacturing and automobile industries.
"Trade between the two countries has been very unfair for a long time. "This situation is no longer sustainable," Trump said, referring to US-China trade.
The United States government has stated that the imposition of duties will begin to be collected from July 6, 2018.
Trump gave the green light after meeting Thursday (February 14th) with top financial officials, including Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross and U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer.
After that, the tension between the USA and other countries in terms of trade escalates. Trump has already opened fronts with Canada, the EU, Mexico for steel and aluminum.
Beijing in early April 2018 had announced that if tariffs are imposed on their own products to the United States, tariffs will be imposed as "retaliation" on US products, mainly cars and planes. A spokesman for the Chinese Foreign Ministry said:
"If the United States adopts unilateral safeguards and harms China's interests, we will respond immediately and take the necessary steps to safeguard our legitimate rights."
It is recalled that Trump said that the tariffs would be imposed from March 2018 and as China warned that it would react, in mid-May the two sides announced a "ceasefire" after their trade negotiations.