China has announced retaliatory tariffs on $60 billion of imports from the United States, sharply escalating the trade war as the Trump administration considers tariffs on nearly all Chinese goods.
China's retaliatory tariffs, which will take effect on Sept. 24, will add 5 or 10 percent to more than 5,000 items of U.S. origin, from meat to wheat and textiles, China's Ministry of Finance said in a statement on its website. China hopes the United States will stop trade frictions and resolve trade tensions through dialogue, the statement said.
At about the same time as China announced the tariffs, President Donald Trump on Tuesday threatened more countermeasures against China if it retaliated against politically influential American agricultural products.
"China has publicly stated that they are actively trying to influence and change our elections by going after our farmers, ranchers and industrial workers because they are loyal to me," Mr. Trump wrote on Twitter. "What China doesn't understand is that these people are great patriots."
In a statement released on Monday, Mr. Trump ordered the administration to impose 10 percent tariffs on about $200 billion in Chinese goods starting Sept. 24, and to more than double those rates starting in January if China does not back down on trade issues. This is in addition to the 25 percent tariffs the United States has already imposed on about $50 billion of Chinese goods, and the retaliatory Chinese tariffs on another $50 billion of American goods.
China's tariffs on $60 billion of U.S. goods include a 5 percent increase on about 1,600 items, including small aircraft, computers and textiles, and a 10 percent increase on more than 3,500 items, including chemicals, meat, wheat, alcohol and liquefied natural gas. Those products had faced additional taxes of up to 25 percent, according to China's August announcement.
Stock markets shrugged off the escalation in trade tensions, with the S&P 500, Dow Jones industrial Average and Nasdaq composite rising in unison. Some investors said the 10 percent rate may have been expected and could have been worse.
Mr Trump said on Monday that the US would immediately seek further tariffs on about $267bn of Chinese goods if Beijing retaliated against US agriculture and industry. Combined with earlier rounds of tariffs, the amount involved would exceed the roughly $505 billion in goods the United States imported from China last year.
The Trump administration's final list of tariffs on $200bn of Chinese goods removed 300 itemised items from the preliminary list, including smartwatches and Bluetooth devices, bicycle helmets, high chairs, child car seats and baby barriers.
Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross said the Trump administration's final list of taxes is designed to help ensure that American consumers don't feel the pinch.
"We're trying to do what's least harmful to the consumer," Ross told CNBC. "We are really evaluating each item on a case-by-case basis, trying to figure out what would achieve the goal of punishing China while doing the least damage to the United States."