President Trump today announced that the United States will implement a 25 percent tariff on $50 billion of goods from China related to intellectual property and technology, and pledged to impose further levies if the Asian nation takes retaliatory measures.
The president said the tariff list includes goods from China’s “Made in China 2025” strategic plan to dominate high-technology industries that will “drive future economic growth for China, but hurt economic growth for the United States and many other countries,” Trump said.
In response, China’s Commerce Ministry said today that “we will immediately introduce taxation measures of the same scale and the same strength. All the economic and trade achievements previously reached by the two parties will no longer be valid,” the ministry said.
In May, Beijing and the United States agreed to “meaningful increases in U.S. agriculture and energy exports to China. However, the White House subsequently said it would still pursue tariffs on Chinese goods that were proposed in April, causing trade relations to deteriorate.
China’s discontent with the tariffs could also affect another key Trump effort: the push to get North Korea to abandon its nuclear and missile programs. Getting Pyongyang to agree to firm denuclearization will rely in large part on the application of international economic sanctions. China, North Korea’s only major ally, is critical of the effort to keep economic pressure on North Korea.
The action today marks the president’s latest move to crack down on what he deems as unfair trade practices by major trading partners. The United States is already embroiled in an escalating trade conflict with Canada, Medico, and the European Union. Those countries cried foul and retaliated after the president imposed steel and aluminum tariffs on those countries.
