China announced on Friday that it will impose a 34 percent tariff on all U.S. goods in retaliation for President Donald Trump’s “Liberation Day” tariffs on Wednesday. The Chinese tariff hike is scheduled to take effect on April 10.
The Chinese government said it has filed a lawsuit with the World Trade Organization (WTO) over the Trump tariffs.
“The United States’ imposition of so-called ‘reciprocal tariffs’ seriously violates WTO rules, seriously damages the legitimate rights and interests of WTO members, and seriously undermines the rules-based multilateral trading system and international economic and trade order,” the Chinese Commerce Ministry said when announcing its retaliatory tariffs.
China previously imposed a 15 percent tariff on coal and liquefied natural gas (LNG) from the United States, and a ten percent tariff on crude oil, agricultural machinery, and certain motor vehicles as part of the escalating trade war with the United States.
The retaliatory actions on Friday also included more export controls on rare earth minerals, which are vital to manufacturing products such as computer chips and electric vehicle (EV) batteries, and more U.S. firms added to a list of companies under trade sanctions for exporting “dual use” products with military applications.
China on Friday also halted poultry imports from two American companies, Mountaire Farms of Delaware and Coastal Processing LLC, ostensibly because banned drugs were detected in the chicken products they shipped.
China’s customs administration issued a separate statement saying it will suspend imports of poultry meat and bonemeal animal feed from Mountaire Farms of Delaware and three other American companies.
President Trump dismissed China’s retaliatory actions on Friday, saying Beijing “played it wrong” and “panicked” after his tariff announcement. Trump said panicking was “the one thing they cannot afford to do.”
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